The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase approved the purchase proposal in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
The government is going to import 150,000 more tons of parboiled rice and 50,000 tons of wheat through international tender to meet the food shortage in the country, according to sources.
The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase approved the purchase proposal by the Ministry of Food in a meeting on Wednesday, chaired by Finance minister AMA Muhith.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Division Additional Secretary Mostafizur Rahman said the rice would be imported from an Indian farm at the cost of $440 per ton, which would cost the Bangladesh government around Tk547.80 crore.
According to the proposal, Indian state-owned farm National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd will supply the rice to Bangladesh under government-to-government purchase scheme.
The farm will send 15,000 tons of rice in first instalment, within 60 days of opening the letter of credit, he added.
Earlier, the government decided to import 1.5 million tons of rice and 500,000 tons of wheat in the current fiscal year to increase government food stock.
As of November 28, the government had 598,000 tons of grain in stock, 381,000 tons of which were rice.
On October 18, the Cabinet Committee on Public Procurement approved the proposal to import 100,000 ton of rice from India.
Additional Secretary Mostafiz further said the 50,000 tons of wheat would be imported at the cost of $245.50 per ton, costing the government Tk101.82 crore.
Source: Dhaka Tribune.
