Sugar price to go down by Tk5 soon: Commerce minister
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi has said that sugar prices in the consumer market will go down by Tk5 per kg soon.
"It will take seven days to implement the new price rate," the minister said during a meeting of the task force on essential commodities at the commerce ministry in Dhaka on Sunday (19 March).
Tipu Munshi said, "The government slashed duties on sugar imports last month following which the retail price is expected to go down by Tk4.5.
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"But we have requested traders to lower the rate by Tk5. They have agreed to our request and assured us that the rate will be effective after a week."
Urging consumers to refrain from panic buying, the minister affirmed that there will be no shortage of essentials during Ramadan.
"We have stored 1.5 times more sugar and edible oil than the market demand in Ramadan. Hence, there should be no crisis of daily essentials during Ramadan," the minister furthered.
Earlier, the government cut duties on sugar imports to rein in the price of sugar ahead of Ramadan.
The regulatory duty has been reduced by 5% to 25% on sugar imports.
At the same time, the government withdrew Tk3,000 specific duty on the import of per tonne raw sugar and Tk6,000 on per tonne of refined sugar.
The reduced tariff facility is to remain in force till 30 May.
