The government will purchase 48,000 tonnes of rice from local suppliers under a contingency measure to avert any food crisis in the flood aftermath, reports UNB.
In order to support massive farming activities under a post-flood recovery plan, the government decided to import about 0.26 million tonnes of urea fertiliser.
The caretaker government's Advisors Committee on Public Purchase at a meeting Thursday approved proposals for the emergency purchases, now that floodwaters are receding and millions of rural people are in crying need for food to survive and fertiliser to go for farming to recoup colossal damage done to crops.
Under the food-purchase proposal placed by the Food and Disaster Management Ministry, the suppliers could import rice from the international market.
The price of per-kilogram rice has been fixed between Tk 24.99 and Tk 25.97 for this procurement. After the meeting, Finance and Planning Advisor Mirza Azizul Islam told reporters that transportation cost was also included in the rate that would vary because of distance of government storage facilities.
"The supplier will have to carry the rice to the storage at their own cost and that's why the price of rice was fixed a little bit higher," he said when his attention was drawn to current rice prices in Kolkata in India where the staple sells below Tk 24 per kg.
The advisors' body, known as Cabinet Purchase Committee, also approved four other proposals of Industries Ministry for the import of a total of about 0.26 million tonnes of urea fertiliser. The Finance Advisor said, "After the import of this fertiliser, there will be no crisis in this regard."
Furthermore, the meeting gave the nod to a Finance Division proposal under Central Bank Strengthening Project for the procurement of technical and software services and related equipment.
Government to procure rice, urea to tackle post-flood exigencies
FE Team | Published: August 17, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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