Shawdesh Desk:

Despite slashing the import duty on rice twice, importers are going slow on rice import fearing lower-than-expected profit.

Fearing a food shortage amid the Russia-Ukraine war, the government has allowed nearly 400 importers to import 12 lakh tonnes of rice and market the product by December.

The traders are supposed to import 4 lakh tonnes of rice by September 29. But the record shows that the traders have imported only 1.5 lah tonnes of rice till September 22.

Food Secretary Ismiel Hossain told the Daily Sun that the importers who will fail to import rice timely will not be authorised for rice import next time.

Importers are projecting lower profit than expected as the Aman harvesting is nearing amid the government’s open market sale (OMS) and food-friendly programme (FFP) being operated across the country.

Experts blame the government for importing rice by those who are the key players in market manipulation.

The initiatives of the government, including duty cut on import, are yet to bring any stability to the rice market in the country, thanks to the profit-centric mindset of the importers, they said.

They suggested that the government should rethink the process of importing rice if it wants to bring stability to the market.

Since June, a total of 394 private companies received approval to import around 12 lakh tonnes of rice, but only 1,50,000 tonnes of rice have been imported till September 22, according to the Ministry of Food.

The government slashed the import duty on rice two times and reduced the duty to 15 percent from 62.5 percent to stabilise the rice market.

Agro economist and researcher Dr Jahangir Alam Khan told the Daily Sun that rice price has been increasing in the country due to market manipulation by rice traders.

“The government is trying to import rice by the private traders who are the main players in the market manipulation. It is a bad decision of the government to stabilise the rice market by importing rice through private companies,” he said.

“The government should review this policy. It can’t be hoped that traders will work for the consumers,” he said, adding that the government should break the rice syndicate by releasing rice to the open market a month earlier.

The traders and importers are cutting the pockets of buyers by bringing rice at low duty and selling it at higher prices, he added.

Moni Kibria, manager of Kajol Traders of Bogra, said they discoursed to import rice from India as the cost is much higher than the local market.