After withdrawing rice import duties last year to fill up depleting reserves following two rounds of floods, the government is now set to re-impose it, says Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed.
“A 28 percent duty will be effective from Jun 7, the day the budget for 2018-19 fiscal will be presented,” he told the media at his offices on Monday.
After rice harvest was severely affected in 2017 due to flashfloods in April and monsoon floods later in the year, the government slashed the duty to curb spiraling prices of the staple.
Commerce Minister Tofail claimed that the rice reserve is ‘several times higher than the demand’.
Domestic output this year has significantly increased and the duty will not affect the market, according to him.
Claiming a ‘bumper harvest’ in Boro rice crop this year, Tofail said, “Rice imports outpaced the deficit by at least eight times, so a duty will be imposed for the sake of the producers.”