Tariff Commission again calls for duty cut to calm egg prices

After over a month, the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) once again urged the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to withdraw import duties on eggs to cool off red-hot prices in the local market.

If the current 33 percent duty on eggs continues, prices of the key source of protein for the poor will not reduce in the local market, the commission said.

On August 29, the commission sent an analytical report to the revenue board recommending duty cuts for the import of onions, potatoes and eggs.

On September 4, duties on potato and onion imports were reduced by the revenue board. Consequently, prices of the two food items have largely stabilised in the local market.

Meanwhile, the BTTC informed the NBR yesterday that no steps had been taken to exempt the duty on egg imports as recommended.

The commission said egg prices increased abnormally due to a lack of adequate supply in the local market since the recent flooding and poultry losses in many districts.

In the face of rising prices, the government on September 15 set the retail price at Tk 142 per dozen.However, each dozen eggs are now being sold at Tk 175 in the capital, up from Tk 160 a week ago.

According to the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), egg prices have increased by 15 percent in the last one month and 20.41 percent in the past year.

Due to floods in late August that inundated different districts of the country, the poultry industry has been affected and the price of other supplementary food products has increased abnormally, creating a kind of pressure on the supply system of eggs in the local market, the commission said.

It said that allowing egg imports for a brief period would not harm the local poultry industry.

The report mentioned that there is no concern about revenue losses either from the exemption in the short term as there were no egg imports in recent years.

Sumon Howlader, president of the Bangladesh Poultry Association, a platform of local poultry farmers, said small farms across the country produce 4.5 crore eggs every day against daily demand of about 4 crore.

Mohammad Amanat Ullah, president of the Tejgaon Egg Merchants' Association, which accounts for a major portion of eggs supplied in the capital, and Kayser Ahmed, managing director of Diamond Egg, one of the country's largest egg producers, cited a mismatch in egg demand and supply, especially a drop in production due to recent floods and high temperatures, as the reason for the surge in prices.