Following the government’s reduction in rice import, individuals and organizations can now be engaged by the Food Ministry by August 25 to import rice at reduced tariff rates.
The government came up with the initiative to encourage the local importers to control the rice price and make the market stable.
Last Sunday (August 12), the National Board of Revenue (NBR) issued a notification to reduce the import duty on rice. The NBR has reduced the import duty on rice from 62.5 percent to 25 percent. This facility will remain valid until October 30 this year.
According to the Food Ministry, it has been decided to import 1 million tonnes of rice through the private sector. The application form has been prepared so that the non-governmental organizations can apply. The application could be submitted to the ministry’s secretary till August 25. A list will be finalized from the applicants. Then the list will be published with permission to import rice.
The rice market has been unstable for a long time. The rice market has been showing upward trend even in the boro season. The price of coarse rice is around Tk 50 per kilogram (kg) while that of the fine quality rice is Tk 60 to Tk 70 per kg.
In this context, the government has decided to reduce the tariff for importing rice to keep the market stable. The Ministry of Food sent a letter to the National Board of Revenue on July 6 requesting a reduction in rice import duty.
As the prices continued to rise last year, the import duty on rice was reduced to 25 percent to bring the situation under control and encourage imports. It expired April last.
The government aims to procure a total of 1.8 million tonnes of paddy and rice from the farmers and local markets during the current Boro season. Paddy was procured directly from the farmers from April 28 and rice was procured from May 8 this year.
The government is procuring 10 lakh tonnes of rice at Tk 40 per kg, 1.5 lakh tonnes of Atap rice at Tk 39 per kg from the millers and six lakh tonnes of paddy at Tk 27 per kg from the farmers.
