Govt to buy another 1.5 lakh tonnes of rice

The government will bring in another 1.5 lakh tonnes of rice from India to enrich the country's food stock. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today gave go-ahead to the import proposals in two cabinet committee meetings.

Some 1 lakh tonnes of rice will be imported from the National Federation of Farmers' Procurement, Processing and Retailing Cooperatives of India Ltd, an Indian government organisation on agriculture.

The cabinet committee on economic affairs approved the import, the price of which will be decided later after government to government negotiations between the two neighbouring countries.

Another 50,000 tonnes of rice will be taken from M/S PK Agri Link Private Ltd—a private company—at a cost of around Tk 175 crore, according to the proposal okayed by the cabinet committee on public purchase.

Despite the government's several initiatives since January this year, rice stock of Bangladesh is declining every day. As of April 4, Bangladesh had 4.88 lakh tonnes of foods in stocks, of which 3.99 lakh tonnes was rice.