Govt to import 400,000 tonnes wheat, 200,000 tonnes rice

The government on Wednesday approved separate proposals for importing 400,000 tonnes of wheat and 200,000 tonnes of rice within 15 days.

The Advisor Council Committee on Economic Affairs gave the approvals in a meeting with Finance Adviser of the interim government Dr Salehuddin Ahmed in the chair held at Bangladesh Secretariat, reports BSS.

Usually, suppliers are given 42 days to supply the products as per the Public Procurement Law (PPA), 2006 and Public Procurement Rules (PPR), 2008.

However, after the ACCEA's approval, the supply tenure has been reduced to 15 days in order to facilitate the quick import of food grains so that there is no shortage of food.

About the proposed import, the Finance Advisor told reporters that the government initiated the move to import rice and wheat as it does not want to see a shortage of food supply. "These are not immediately required, but the government wants to keep our stock ready for supply," he added.

As per the proposal placed by the Ministry of Food, the government will import 200,000 metric tons of rice in the current fiscal year 2024-25 and 400,000 metric tons of wheat through the G2G (Government to Government) system.

In the fiscal year 2024-25, the government set a target for procuring 350,000 metric tons of rice from international sources and 1.923 million metric tons from domestic sources.

It also set a target to procure 700,000 metric tons of wheat from the international market and 10,000 metric tons from the domestic market for the fiscal year 2024-25.