The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has exempted all types of edible oil from duty, tax and VAT till March 31, 2025 to maintain normal supply in the market and keep prices affordable.
In a notification on Monday (December 16), the NBR said that 3 separate notifications have been issued in this regard on December 15.
It is said that in all these notifications, the value added tax payable at the local level on the sale of sunflower, canola, soybean and palm oil has been completely exempted till March 31, 2025. In addition, the VAT payable at the import stage of all these products has been reduced from 15 percent to 5 percent. As a result, there are no other duties and taxes remaining on these products except the 5 percent VAT at the import stage.
Earlier, the two duty and tax exemption notifications issued on October 17 and November 19 were applicable till December 15 for soybean and palm oil. In order to stabilize the edible oil market and keep the prices of edible oil affordable for the consumers, the existing customs duties and excise duties on the import of crude and refined sunflower oil and canola oil, along with soybean and palm oil, have been reduced.
Considering the recent upward trend in the international market prices of soybean and palm oil, the validity of the three new notifications has been kept in force till March 31 to ensure normal supply of the product during the month of Ramadan.
The complete withdrawal of customs duty, regulatory duty, advance tax and advance income tax on sunflower oil and canola oil and the reduction in value-added tax will reduce the import cost of these oils by Tk. 40-50 per liter. As a result of all these measures, the supply of edible oil will increase and the market price will be kept at a tolerable level for the general public, the NBR hopes.