Dhaka, Oct. 3 -- The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has reinstated the value added tax (VAT) rate on cooking oil from 5% to 15% after six and a half months.

Earlier this year, the government imposed a 5% VAT levy at the import level, instead of 15%, to keep the prices down. However, the concession expired on Saturday.

Stakeholders fear that the importers and traders will use this 10% hike as an excuse to increase the prices again. The facility was extended to cooking oil importers and traders till September 30 in an NBR notification issued earlier in March. In March, the price of soybean oil in the local market started increasing and, at one point, shot up over Tk200. Currently, the price is Tk192.

On March 14, the NBR issued a notifi...