The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase on Wednesday approved 16 proposals, including three for procuring 12.5 million litres of soybean oil and 5,000kg of lentil under Direct Procurement Method.
The approval was given from a Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase meeting held virtually with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair.
While briefing reporters virtually after the meeting, Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division Abdul Barik said the meeting approved the three proposals of TCB under the Commerce Ministry to procure the oil and lentil.
He said, as per the proposals, some four million litres of the edible will be procured from Super Oil Refinery with each litre price at Tk173.95 while remaining 8.5 million litres will be purchased from three suppliers with each litre price at Tk171.
Of the three suppliers, Shun Shing Edible Oil Ltd, a subsidiary company of Bangladesh Edible Oil Limited, will supply two million litres while Bashundhara Multi Food Products Limited, a subsidiary of Bashundhara Group, will supply 3.5 million litres, and Sena Edible Oil Industry, a subsidiary of Sena Kalyan Sangstha Bangladesh, will provide 30,000 litres of soybean oil, he added.
Some 5,000kg of lentil will be procured from three suppliers at a total cost of Tk55.50 crore with each kg price at Tk111, he observed.
Of these, some 3,000kg will be purchased from ACI Limited, 1,000kg from Nadil Traders and Roy Traders, he said.
He mentioned that the TCB, a subordinate body of the Commerce Ministry, will sell these goods to the people at controlled rates as part of the government’s open market sale program.
The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase also approved another 13 proposals from different ministries.
Of these, the state-owned Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation will import some 120,000 metric tons of fertilizer from four international suppliers.
Of the fertilizer, 30,000 metric tons of some 30,000 bagged prilled urea fertilizer will be procured from Muntajat of Qatar at a cost Tk152.50 crore, while another 30,000 metric tons bagged granular from Kafco at Tk151.57 crore.
Some 30,000 metric tons of bulk granular urea will be imported from Sabic Agri-nutrients Company of Saudi Arabia at Tk151.88 crore and another 30,000 metric tons from the same Saudi company at Tk149.08 crore.
Each metric ton of urea from the four lots will cost between $443.35 and $524.50 which earlier cost between $588 and $557.87 per metric ton.
This shows that the cost of urea fertilizer is decreasing in the global market which had crossed $1,000 immediately after the Russia-Ukraine war began.
Besides, six separate proposals from the Chittagong Port Authority under the Ministry of Shipping received the nod of the committee to hire six berth operators at the port for next five years.
