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Immediate rice import okayed

70,000 MT to be brought from India; 62,500 MT to be locally procured

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase yesterday approved an immediate procurement of 132,500 metric tons (MT) of rice from home and abroad, amid a rapid depletion of government granaries and skyrocketing price of the staple food.
Sensing the emergency of a looming supply dearth, the cabinet committee meeting chaired by Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman directed to import 70,000 MT of rice from India and procure 62,500 MT locally at a total cost of Tk 227 crore.
Thanks to a flood-induced production shortfall in the last Aman followed by the disappointing government domestic grain
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procurement drive, a spiralling rise in rice and wheat prices made both the urban poor and rural consumers suffer miseries for the last two months.
The Aman harvest was at least 30 percent lower than the government's expectation. And later the government's rice procurement drive was hamstrung due to a poor price offered, much less than the existing market price, further straining the food-reserve situation.
With an 8.5 lakh MT food stock considered as the critical 'food security' level for Bangladesh, the government granaries at the moment have only 6 lakh MT of food-grains in reserve.
The approval of the rice procurement and import came only a day after the food minister had told the Jatiya Sangsad that there was no shortage of rice in the country and, on the contrary, a national taskforce meeting had recommended temporary waiver of import duties on rice.
A total of 18.5 lakh MT of grains have been imported so far in the current fiscal year by the private sector, with another 5 lakh MT waiting in the pipeline.
To shorten the import time, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has already approved a special measure under which the tender process can now be completed within 21 days instead of the standard 45 days for grain import.
Yesterday's meeting at the Cabinet Division once again deferred approving a controversial BTTB proposal on Cox's Bazar-Chittagong optical fibre link project, as the necessary approval of the prime minister was not available. The state-run Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) proposes to pay Tk 47 crore to Siemens, the highest bidder, for installing the optical fibre link, instead of assigning Nortel that offered Tk 30 crore for the same job.
The meeting also endorsed a renewal for two years of a 2004 contract with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for import of diesel and jet fuel. Besides, it approved five other purchase proposals of ministries involving a total expenditure of Tk 390 crore.