The Food Planning and Monitoring Committee has proposed selling out about 1.5m tonnes stock of rice and wheat at reduced prices through open market sale programme as Irri harvest time nears.
The reduction of prices will add a subsidy of Tk300 crore to the country’s food sector.
The committee made the proposal at a meeting yesterday as a new harvest of Irri rice would hit the market in next two and half months, said an official who attended the meeting.
Food Minister Qamrul Islam, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury and Finance Minister AMA Muhith, among others, were present. The proposal will be placed for prime minister’s approval.
According to the meeting source, the quality of rice and wheat in stocks has become poor and the stocks should be cleared before Irri rice is harvested.
The current prices of rice and wheat in the stock are respectively Tk20 and Tk19 per kilogram. In the OMS, rice will be sold at Tk15 and wheat at Tk14, according to the committee proposal.
The country’s total capacity for storage of food grains is now 1.9m tonnes.
“The prices of rice and wheat will be slashed to clear stocks, and the cut will be in a couple of weeks,” Finance Minister AMA Muhith told the Dhaka Tribune after the meeting.
Nirod Boron Saha, chairman of Husking Mills Owners’ Association and trader in the norther district of Naogaon, said farmers would face losses if the government didn’t procure Irri rice clearing the current stock.
He said if the government exported rice, the food grain would not be wasted in stocks.
The country’s demand for food grains this year is 29.5m tonnes while a total of 38.7m tonnes is expected to be produced this fiscal year.
A sum of Tk1,981 crore subsidy goes to food ministry this fiscal, a slight increase from last year’s Tk1,806 crore.
On December 8 last year, the National Board of Revenue issued a notification, doubling the import duty on rice to 20%, in a bid to curb rice imports and protect the interest of the farmers.
