The government has exempted all edible oils including canola and sunflower oil from duty, tax and VAT until March 31, 2025, aiming to increase market supply.

In order to keep the market supply stable and the prices affordable during the holy month of Ramadan, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has again exempted duty and VAT on edible oils.

NBR has issued 3 separate orders, completely exempting all existing import duties, regulatory duties and advance income tax on the import of refined and unrefined sunflower, canola, soybean and palm oil until March 31, 2025.

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Furthermore, in these orders, the value added tax payable at the local level on the sale of sunflower, canola, soybean and palm oil has been completely exempted until the specified period.

Moreover, the VAT payable at the import stage of these products has been reduced from 15% to 5%.

As a result, no other customs duties other than 5% VAT remain at the import stage on these products.

For this purpose, three SROs have been issued (SRO No. 414-Law/2024/98- Customs Date: 12/12/2024; SRO No. 415-Law/Income Tax-59/2024 Date: 12/12/2024, and SRO No. 416-Law/2024/266-VAT Date: 15/12/2024).

Previously, the two customs duty exemption notifications issued on October 17 and November 19 were applicable till December 15 in the case of soybean and palm oil.

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, 2025 to ensure regular supply of the product during the holy month of Ramadan.

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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.

The National Board of Revenue in a press release hoped that all these measures will increase the supply of edible oil and as a result, the market price will be kept at a tolerable level for the general public.