Initiatives to increase rice import in the private sector

The period of duty concession on import of rice has been extended for another three months to make food prices bearable. Traders will get the benefits of import duty exemption and regulatory duty at the rate of five percent on boiled rice and atap rice till March 31 of the new year. This facility was scheduled to end on December 31 of this month. Recently the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has issued a notification in this regard, which has been published in the official gazette.

It is said that to import rice under exemption, permission of a joint secretary rank officer of the food ministry must be obtained for each shipment. As a result of this government initiative, it is expected that the import of rice in the private sector will increase. In this regard, due to the global crisis, there is a danger of food shortages all over the world. In this situation, it is suggested by the government to increase the import of rice, the main food grain of the country. But imports in the private sector did not increase that way.

The price of rice in the country is increasing even at this time of Aman paddy rise. The government has allowed private import of 15 lakh 56 thousand tons of rice so far in the current financial year. But till now only 3 lakh 53 thousand tons of rice has arrived in the country. The pace of private importation of rice is very slow. Because of this, the price of rice is not decreasing in the market. In the market, narrow miniket and Nazirshail rice is selling at 70-78 per kg, medium quality pajam and lata at 60-65 and coarse rice at 50-55 rupees in the retail market.

In order to increase the import of rice, the period of import under duty-free facility has been extended by another three months. Apart from this, new sources of rice import are being sought. In the meantime, the food minister and secretary have visited Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. The condition of rice in government stock is said to be satisfactory. However, the government is somewhat worried about the private sector.

As of last Sunday, the amount of food grains stored in government warehouses is 16 lakh 12 thousand 496 tons. Among them there are 3 lakh 7 thousand 94 tons of wheat. The Food Ministry says that there was a good yield in the last Boro season. Bumper paddy will rise in Aman too. However, as the price of rice in the market is not at the expected level, the anxiety of the government is increasing. Officials of the ministry feel that it will be difficult to get immediate rice from abroad during the crisis.

Keeping this reality in mind, as per the directives of the Prime Minister, necessary steps are being taken to increase food production as well as major initiatives to control the domestic market. The Ministry of Food is planning to discuss this matter with the Divisional Commissioners and District Commissioners soon. Besides, the government wants to ensure the new country of rice import.

In the end of June this year, the first phase of rice import was allowed. But due to lack of interest in import among the traders, the government took the initiative to reduce the duty. Currently there is 5 percent advance income tax, 5 percent advance tax and 5 percent regulatory duty on rice imports. However, businessmen say that although the matter of increasing duty-free facilities is good news for the moment, it is more necessary to ensure the opening of Letter of Credit (LC) facilities first. Due to various issues including the dollar crisis, banks are still not showing much interest in taking LC. In this situation, opening of LC for import of food products especially rice should be made easier.

It is known that 530 thousand tons of rice are being imported from India, Myanmar and Vietnam. More than half of the rice has already arrived. 2 lakh 69 thousand tons of rice has arrived in this country. According to the sources of the Ministry of Food, the official import process is going on at a normal pace. The remaining rice is also in the pipeline.

In addition, in terms of rice import, Bangladesh is now focusing on Thailand. However, Bangladesh did not buy that rice even after promising to buy rice from Thailand under G2 method. This time two lakh tons of rice has to be imported from Thailand through Vietnam. When asked about finding a new source of rice import, Food Secretary Ismail Hossain said that the main purpose of this visit was to improve relations with the countries. We had no intention to buy rice now or how much to buy. We have visited the countries and wanted to understand whether they can provide rice during our special need, and if so, what will be the process. He said, we will decide the next course of action after meeting about the matters of the visit. In this financial year, the import of one lakh tonnes of rice from India is going on.