Amid the spiralling prices of eggs at local markets, another shipment of 2.31 lakh eggs entered the country from India through Benapole land on Saturday night.
Dhaka based importer “Hydro Land Solution” brought it the consignment costing Tk 5.70 per egg.
With a Tk 1.83 import duty at the land port, the buying price of each egg stands at over Tk 7.5. The government has permitted import of 4.5 crore eggs in phases.
By next month (November), another 90 lakh chicken eggs will arrive from India.
Shah Alam, a representative of the importer Hydro Land Solution, said the Ministry of Commerce permitted it to import 50 lakh eggs in two months, setting a deadline by September 10.
But, the importers could import some three lakh eggs in two shipments, he said, blaming the political instability for being barred from importing.
Upon appeals, the ministry extended the deadline by two more months till November, the representative said.
Masudur Rahman, revenue officer of the land port, confirmed that per egg costs over Tk 7.50 with tax.
Bangladesh's National Board of Revenue (NBR) Thursday slashed import duty on eggs from 25 per cent to 5 per cent to help rein in prices.
The egg import duty cut would reduce import costs of eggs by Tk 13.8 per dozen, making the country's cheapest source of protein affordable for the commoners, the NBR said in a statement.
Recently low and middle income people are being forced to cut short consumption of eggs as prices soared to Tk 200 a dozen over the last week in Dhaka and other parts of the country.
According to the Ministry of Commerce estimates Bangladesh has a daily demand for 4 crore eggs.
