The country\u2019s tea growers have demanded duty increase on import of tea by more than 25 percentage points to protect the local producers from \u2018uneven competition\u2019 with the imported one.\u00a0The Bangladesh Tea Association earlier this month placed its demand to the finance and commerce ministries and the National Board of Revenue seeking an increase of total duty on tea import to 110 per cent from the existing 84 per cent.
\nThe duty level should be kept consistent with that of neighbouring tea producing countries like India and Sri Lanka to discourage import, it said.
\nIn India, the rate of duty on import of tea is 110 per cent while that is 130 per cent in Sri Lanka.
\nIn a letter signed by BTA chairman Ardashir Kabir sent to NBR chairman Md Nojibur Rahman, the association claimed that local tea growers were facing uneven and tough competition with the importers due to low duty on its import.
\nThe quality of imported tea is also substandard, it claimed.
\nAccording to the BTA, tea import has been increasing since 2010 and 4.13 million kg of the item was imported in the country in that year.
\nIn 2012, the tea import fell sharply to 1.92 million kg as a result of imposition of 20 per cent supplementary duty on it in the financial year 2012-2013.
\nThe import of tea again skyrocketed to 10.62 million kg in 2013 due to the withdrawal of the supplementary duty.
\nIn April 2014, the revenue board increased regulatory duty to 15 per cent from 5 per cent in line with the repeated demand from the tea growers and its import fell down to 6.96 million kg in the year.
\nThe BTA claimed that local producers were losing the market and not getting fair prices as imported tea was cheaper.
\n\u2018The price of tea fell down in the auction in Chittagong in the current financial year 2014-2015 due to excessive import of the item making the local growers worried about the future of the industry and their investment,\u2019 Ardashir said in the letter to the NBR.
\nIn January, the average auction price fell down to Tk 188.10 a kg from that of Tk 201.55 a kg in May last year, he said.
\nHe said in many cases, the price of imported tea stood at Tk 144 a kg which is even lower than production cost of locally-produced tea.
\nIn addition, around 25 per cent to 30 per cent tea remained unsold at every auction and the volume of unsold tea is on the rise, he added.
\n\u2018In this context, duty on tea import should be increased to save the local industry and discourage the import of low-quality item as the local growers are fully capable of meeting the domestic demand for it,\u2019 he said.
\nAccording to the Bangladesh Tea Board, Bangladesh produces 66.26 million kg of tea in 165 tea estates in 2013 against the average internal consumption of 64 million kg in the year.
\nProduction and domestic consumption of tea have been increasing significantly over the years.
\nAccording to BTB data, the country\u2019s tea production was only 18.36 million kg against the internal demand for 14.21 million kg.<\/p>\n

-With New Age<\/strong> input<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The country\u2019s tea growers have demanded duty increase on import of tea by more than 25 percentage points to protect the local producers from \u2018uneven competition\u2019 with the imported one.\u00a0The Bangladesh Tea Association earlier this month placed its demand to the finance and commerce ministries and the National Board of Revenue seeking an increase of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n