The government has given permission to 280 private firms to import 837,000 tonnes of rice as different corporate organizations and unscrupulous traders are allegedly trying to create an artificial crisis in the market of rice across the country.
"The food ministry has given permission to some 280 private firms to import 837,000 tonnes of rice from abroad within next August aiming at tackling the artificial crisis of rice, caused mostly by some unscrupulous hoarders in the country," said Muhammad Mahbubur Rahman, senior assistant secretary
(foreign procurement) of the Ministry of Food.
Of the total import, these firms will import some 721,000 tonnes of boiled and 116,000 tonnes of non-boiled (Atap) rice, according to an official order.
The private sector importers have been asked to open the letter of credit (LC) within this month to import the amount of rice and market those food grains within August this year.
The government has given permission to the importers and traders of the private sector for importing rice with a 25% tax with a view to ensuring its adequacy to stabilize the volatile rice market.
Some private importers and traders have already submitted their applications to the ministry intending to import rice.
The importers, who have been given permission, will have to import rice within a month of opening LC. A portion of the imported rice must have to be available in the market within the next 15 days of reaching those food grains to the country, Rahman added.
On June 22, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) under the Internal Resources Division of the Finance Ministry issued a notification clearing a Food Ministry proposal to cut import tax for facilitating rice import under the private sector.
Importers would have to just pay only 25% import tax - 15% regulatory duty, 5% advance tax and 5% advance income tax, according to the NBR notification, adding that there would be no customs duty.
Customs duty was 25% and regulatory duty 25% previously.
However, the Food Ministry proposed to allow rice import at 'zero tax'.
Responding to the proposal of the ministry, the prime minister has also given her approval to import rice at zero tax. But, the NBR has given its clearance to import rice paying 25% taxes in total.
According to the Food Ministry and Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) statement, retailers are selling per kg fine rice at Tk65-80, which is up 14% from a month ago.
Prices of coarse rice edged up 8.6% to Tk48-53 per kg, during the same period.
At present, the food grain stock in the government godowns is around 1.64 million tonnes.
Of the grains, the stock of rice is around 1.4 million tonnes, 163,000 tonnes of wheat and 107,000 tonnes of paddy.
