Govt imports rice to keep price under control: Finance Minister

Finance Minister AHM Mostafa Kamal has said the government has been importing rice as per the demand and to keep the price under control during the pandemic.

“Two ministries –food and agriculture—have coordinated to import rice from aboard,” the minister told reporters in reply to a question after the virtual meeting of the cabinet committee on public purchase and economy affairs on Wednesday.

He made the comments against the backdrop of declining food grain reserves in the country caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The agriculture ministry will look into the matter so that the farmers are not affected by the imported price, said the minister.

In reply to another question, he said if the international importer failed to supply rice, we will look for other importers who can supply the rice.

The cabinet committee on public purchase approved the food ministry’s proposal to import 50,000 tonnes of non-basmati boiled rice from M/S Bagadia Brothers Pvt. Ltd of India for Tk 176.36 crore through an international tender. The cabinet committee on economic affairs also approved a proposal in principle from the Ministry of Food for procuring one lakh metric tonnes of non-Basmati boiled rice from the National Federation of Farmer’s Procurement Processing and Retailing Cooperatives India Ltd.

According to the latest government data, the foodgrain stock was 4.83 lakh tonnes as of March 31. The figure includes 4.12 lakh tonnes of rice and 0.71 lakh tonnes of wheat.