In 2022, the government increased duties on imported dates in an effort to keep imports under control. It consisted of 25 percent import duty, 15 percent VAT, 5 percent advance income tax, 5 percent advance tax and 3 percent regulatory duty. The total tax burden was 59 percent.
Recently, the government cut import duty by 10 per cent due to Ramzan, which was expected to bring down the prices of dates by Tk 13-33 per kg. But this did not happen in reality.
According to the NBR, a total of 38,205 tonnes of dates have been imported since the import duty cut, of which 28 per cent is the Zaidi variety, and 51 per cent is loose dates.
Expensive varieties like ajwa and medjool account for less than 1 percent.
*The report, which was originally published in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo, has been rewritten in English by Misbahul Haq.