Border opens wide to receive rice

Government's revenue authority has added rice to the list of items allowed to come in through a few more land customs stations (LCS) from India to make the staple available on the overheated domestic market.
Officials said the Customs wing of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) recently opened up Rohanpur-Singabad rail route and Akhaura-Agartala border between the two countries to allow rice import.
In August, the NBR allowed import of rice from India through the Shewla-Sutarkandi LCS in Sylhet, in the wake of price spiral.
Officials said the NBR allowed import of rice through the land ports following proposals from the private importers.
They said major amount of rice is imported from India through Benapole, Bhomra, Hili, and Sona Masjid frontiers. "We have allowed import of rice along with some other products through those routes in order to meet the domestic demand for the staple," said a senior customs official.
Rice import through those routes was restricted as per customs Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO, he said.
The Customs recently issued fresh SROs with the provision of import of rice through those routes, he said.
Currently, 32 out of 185 LCS on the Indo-Bangla border are operative.
The official said now rice can be imported through Rohanpur-Singabad rail routes. The wayward market of rice would cool down if adequate availability of rice is ensured through relaxing its import procedures.
Earlier, the customs wing had cut down import duty on rice to 2.0 per cent in phases from 28 per cent.
Price of rice has broken all past records on the domestic market, as spot surveys show.
Coarse varieties of rice, consumed by poor and lower-income groups of people, currently sells at Tk 44-46 per kilogramme, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
Last week, the cabinet committee on public procurement approved import of 0.25 million tonnes of rice. Of the volume, some 0.15 million tonnes will be imported from Thailand under government-to-government arrangement.
The rest 0.10 million tonnes will be imported from other rice- exporting countries, including neighbouring India. Earlier, the cabinet committee had approved purchase of 0.1 million tonnes of parboiled rice from India.
Project and Equipment Corporation of India Ltd, under the Indian Commerce Ministry, will export the rice to Bangladesh.

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