Bangladesh has issued another tender to import 25,000 tonnes of white sugar to meet domestic requirements, officials of the state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) said on Tuesday.
The new tender will close on July 5, the officials said, adding that traders had until August 19 to deliver the cargoes. TCB issued separate tenders to import 25,000 tonnes and 12,500 tonnes of white sugar, due to close on June 28 and July 2, respectively.
The TCB officials said Bangladesh also issued a separate tender to buy 10,000 tonnes of imported sugar from the domestic market. The tenders were floated after Bangladesh Finance Minister M. Saifur Rahman proposed this month a tariff cut for sugar imports in the budget for the 2006-07 (July-June) fiscal year.
Saifur proposed to impose a fix duty of 5,000 taka ($72) per tonne on sugar imports, instead of 43.75 percent in total taxes. This measure would bring down the price of sugar by 6,000 taka ($86) per tonne, the minister said. Importers of white refined sugar welcomed the move but those who import raw sugar have asked for a zero tariff, traders said.
Bangladesh scraped five tenders for 25,000 tonnes, 15,000 tonnes, 10,000 tonnes, 25,000 tonnes and 20,000 tonnes of sugar since March due to high prices, the officials said. The lowest prices quoted in those offers were $478.85, $478.75, $497, $512 and $496.50 per tonne, respectively. Bangladesh's state and private sugar mills produced a total of 160,645 tonnes of sugar in 2004/05, against annual demand of nearly 1.2 million tonnes, the officials said.
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