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Rice import shoots on poor aman

REAZ AHMAD
Rice import in the first eight months of the current fiscal year has surged five times the last financial year's.
Private importers brought in 5.97 lakh metric tons (MT) of rice till February, FY03. The import in last fiscal year was 1.18 lakh MT.
Shortfall in aman rice production, shrinking food aid and a favourable duty structure have resulted in the import surge, sources said.
"Private sector import this year is comparatively higher than last year's, which eased the supply position although the market prices
are high," said the latest issue of the Bangladesh Food Situation Report published by the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU) of the food ministry.
During the first half of the current fiscal year, only 1.33 lakh MT of food aid was received against the projection of four lakh MT, according to the official report.
The food reserve position is also very low now, hovering around five lakh MT, official sources.
They attributed the poor reserve to the failure in aman procurement.
Due to delay in aman procurement, the government could not
procure even 10 per cent of its targeted 2 lakh MT of rice.
The government also sold almost 4 lakh MT of rice from the silos under a subsidised 'Open Market Sale' (OMS) to control price late last year. The OMS target was 1 lakh MT.
Rice price marked 21 per cent increase in the beginning of the current fiscal compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal, according to official statistics.
But despite huge imports from India, rice prices continue to remain high. The FPMU report said, "In the beginning of December 2002, the (rice) price came down slightly but again started to increase from the last week of December, 2002. The main cause was supply shortfall due to foggy weather, which hampered rice husking as well as transportation."
Wholesalers however also blame the frequent shifts in import duty structures for erratic price behaviour.
To protect the slide in foreign exchange reserve, the government imposed 100 per cent margin on letters of credit (L/C) for rice import in December last. Later, it also imposed supplementary duty.
On February 17, duty on rice was again slashed from 29 per cent to 7.5 per cent by doing away with the 3 per cent advance income tax and 3 per cent development surcharge in addition to duty reduction.