Private-sector traders are now permitted to import 83,000 tonnes of rice in government move to reign in runway prices, as the staple is getting pricier in lean period.
A Food Ministry notification issued Thursday to this effect says 30 importers have been permitted to bring the amount of rice and market by April 25.
The imports, permitted by the procurement wing of the ministry, include 49,000 tonnes of parboiled rice and 34,000 tonnes of non-basmati white rice.
"The imported rice has to be sold in prescribed sacks and those couldn't be repackaged," says the government order, in an implicit note of forbidding against misdealing.
As the market began heating up no sooner had the new harvest completed, in a quirky manner, the government on February 8 cut down import duties on rice to allow the private sector to import the grain.
The fiscal easing follows a direction from the Prime Minister to ease prices of some key essentials. A follow-up fixing of prices of the daily necessities has yet to work.
The National Board of Revenue completely withdrew the 25-percent import duty on rice and reduced regulatory duty to 5.0 per cent from 25 per cent, with effect until May 15.
However, despite the pared-down duty in effect, the importers will still have to pay nearly 15 per cent of charges.
Incidentally, the private sector got permission for rice import at a time when the global rice indices are showing an 11-year-high trend as per FAO data.
The neighbouring India, one of the leading rice sources in the world, has also restricted rice export for last one year, according to media reports.
India has 20-percent duty on parboiled rice export while it has banned export of non-basmati white rice.
India's rice-export restrictions have raised rice prices 22-25 per cent here in last 15 months, farm-economist Prof Dr Rashidul Hasan told the FE writer.
He thinks coarse-rice-import cost would not be less than Tk 65 a kg now even if it is imported from India.
"If the importers bring high-end rice, it hardly could put impact on the market," he predicts.
However, coarse rice retailed at Tk 44-55, medium Tk 55-65 and finer at Tk 65-95 a kg across the country, based on villages, suburbs and cities, according to the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM).
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