Home ›› 01 Sep 2022 ›› Front
The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) has approved separate proposals for procuring 5 lakh tonnes of wheat and 3.30 lakh tonnes of rice from Russia, India and Vietnam to meet the growing demand.
Additional Secretary to Cabinet Division Md Abdul Barik disclosed the information after a virtual meeting of the committee on Wednesday.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the meeting.
Abdul Barik said that the proposal to import 500,000 metric tonnes of wheat from Russia through the G2G (government to government) method was approved in the meeting. The price of five lakh tonnes of wheat will be Tk 2,043 crore, at the rate of Tk 40.85 per kg. The government will pay the price in dollars.
He also said that the proposal to import one lakh tonnes of non-basmati parboiled rice from India through G2G system has also been approved. Seventy thousand tonnes will be bought at the rate of Tk 42.13 per kg while the remaining 30,000 tonnes will cost Tk 40.70 per kg. The government will spend Tk 417.05 crore to import one lakh tonnes of rice.
The additional secretary said the proposal to import 2,00,000 tonnes of non-basmati parboiled rice and 30,000 tonnes of Atap rice from Vietnam through the G2G system has been approved. The price of non-basmati parboiled rice is Tk 49.49 per kg while Atap rice will cost Tk 46.90 taka per kg. The total cost will be Tk 1130.79 crores.
Recently, the government has decided to increase the supply of rice under the Open Market Sales (OMS). It has been decided to give at least 10 kg of rice per month to one crore TCB family card holders at the rate of Tk 15 per kg. For this, the government has to provide additional rice which will be collected from abroad.
The price of rice and flour has increased in the country’s market for quite some time. The price of all types of rice has increased by Tk 8-12 per kg after the latest hike in fuel oil prices.
To increase the supply of rice in the market, the government has approved the import of more than 10 lakh tonnes of rice by the private sector.
Earlier, on June 22 last, the government reduced the duty on rice import to 25 per cent from 62.5 per cent. On August 28, the government further reduced regulatory duty to 5 per cent from 25 per cent. As a result, rice imports will now have to pay a total tax of 15.25 per cent.
Apart from this, the cabinet committee meeting appointed China Communication Construction Limited for five years to collect the toll of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel. The company will pay Tk 982.82 crore to the government.
Altogether 16 procurement proposals were approved in the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Procurement.
