FPP yet to start fully due to dealers\\\' apathy

The government's initiative to sell rice and atta under Fair Price Programme (FPP) is yet to make any major headway due to poor response from the dealers, officials said.

The programme for selling these foodstuffs to limited income group of people was supposed to start across the country from the current month. However, it can be started in only a few districts, following the dealers' reluctance.

"The dealers were rather uninterested, as the programme discontinued last year. It makes them indecisive whether it will continue this year or not," a deputy director of the Directorate General of Food (DGoF) told the FE Sunday.

He said DGoF recently held a meeting regarding the programme, following the Ministry of Food directives.

The meeting decided to ask the regional and district controllers of food to hold meetings with their respective area dealers for launching the programme as early as possible.  

Officials concerned said the food officials have started selecting dealers for running FPP.

"We started the programme in a limited scale by appointing 23 dealers against the number of 320. We are hopeful that the number of dealers will increase, and FPP will run in full swing from the next month," Chief Controller of Dhaka Rationing Sukumar Chandra Roy told the FE.

FPP was first initiated in 2010 and continued until 2012. It was discontinued last year, as the prices of rice and atta were stable at retail level.

To run the programme three days a week the government has appointed five dealers for each district, while the number is 320 in the capital.

Each of the dealers in a district gets 25,000 tonnes of atta and 75,000 tonnes of rice per month for selling to their 5,000 cardholders. The dealers buy rice at Tk 22.50 per kg and atta at Tk 21 per kg from the Department of Food.  

The total number of cardholders in the country is now more than 0.94 million, according to DGoF.

Under FPP, a cardholder can purchase 15 kg rice and 5 kg atta once a month. Price of per kg rice has been fixed at Tk 24 and atta at Tk 22.

Earlier, the food ministry gave directives to the DGoF DG for implementing the programme to provide rice and atta at subsidised rates to the marginalised people.

The government, in its electoral manifesto, committed to provide these staple food items to the limited-income group of people at affordable prices.