Government will buy another 50,000 tonnes of non-basmati or boiled rice from India at around Tk. 34 per kg. The total cost will be Tk. 168 crore 62 lakh 90 thousand 400. The Cabinet Committee on Public Procurement has approved a proposal of the Ministry of Food in this regard. Earlier, the government had bought another one lakh tonnes of rice from India.
The approval was given at a committee meeting held online on Wednesday (December 30). After the meeting, Additional Secretary to the Cabinet Division Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal told this to the reporters. The meeting was chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
It is learned that the rice will be procured for the fiscal year 2020-21 through international tenders. AgriLink Pvt. Ltd. MSPK, Birbhum, India will supply the rice. The price of rice per tonne has been set at 397.71 US dollars. As such, the price of rice per kg will be Tk. 33.71 paise excluding VAT.
Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal said, "Earlier, on December 3 and 9, the government approved a proposal to purchase 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes of non-basmati or boiled rice for the fiscal year 2020-21 through international quotations." At that time the price of rice was fixed at Tk. 34.26 paise and Tk.35. 28 paise per kg respectively.
According to the Ministry of Food, there was 5 lakh 36 thousand tons of rice in the government warehouse last Tuesday. But at the same time last year it was 10 lakh 7 thousand tons. As a result, rice stocks are declining rapidly.
According to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), coarse rice was sold at Tk. 48 to 50 per kg, medium rice at Tk. 53-60 per kg and fine rice at Tk. 60-66 per kg in Dhaka on Tuesday. The government has decided to increase stocks due to rising rice prices.
Meanwhile, to control the market, the tax on rice imports to the private sector was reduced from 62 per cent to 25 per cent on December 26.