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The government has proposed a small rate of customs duty on onion import to ensure fair market price for local farmers, encouraging onion cultivation and reducing dependency on imports.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday unveiled the national budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 with a record outlay of Tk 5.68 trillion. Last year's budget size was Tk 5.23 trillion.
Currently, no duty is now imposed on onion imports by traders.
The finance minister has proposed a 5.0 per cent customs duty on the import of bulk onions and 5.0 per cent for wrapped or canned onion up to 2.5kg.
Mr Kamal in his budget speech said, “I propose a small rate of customs duty on onion import to ensure fair market price for onion farmers, encouraging onion cultivation and reducing dependency on import.
"At present, farmers are cultivating plenty of onions in our country. But with the zero duty rate on imported onions, domestic onion farmers are weary of being deprived of fair market prices compared to production costs.” the budget speech added.
The minister also mentioned, “This may discourage farmers from cultivating onions in the future.”