The government has proposed raising import duties on cashew nuts and introducing new taxes on imported fish products, aiming to protect domestic industries and expand the tax base. Finance minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury made the proposal while placing the proposed national budget for the fiscal year of 2026-2027 in Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday. Under the proposed measures, import duties on cashew nuts have been raised sharply to encourage domestic farming and strengthen local value addition. Unprocessed cashews in shell will now face a 25 per cent import duty, up from 1 per cent, while processed shelled cashews will also attract a 25 per cent duty, compared with the previous 5 per cent rate. However, domestic processors importing unprocessed cashews for local value addition would be subject to a lower 15 per cent duty to maintain competitiveness in the processing industry. In another measure, a 20 per cent supplementary duty would be imposed on imported pangaas fish fillet to protect the domestic fish processing industry from cheaper imports. The finance minister also proposed a new 15 per cent VAT at the import stage on various high-value frozen fish varieties as part of an expanded VAT schedule aimed at broadening revenue collection from the fish trade.