Bangladesh
Indian Wheat Bangladesh to import Indian wheat after court ruling
Dhaka, October 15: Due to failure to complete export of wheat against the old LC within the stipulated time, the deadline has been extended. A High Court in India extended the deadline to October 31 following a plea by the exporters. As a result, import of old LC wheat from India will start again through Hili land port of Dinajpur. However, the Indian authorities have not yet announced when it will start.
Meanwhile, when wheat starts arriving, traders said that the upward trend that occurred due to import ban will decrease.
Hili land port importer Rabiul Islam and C&F agent Rashedul Islam said that India imposed a ban on wheat export on May 13 to control the price of wheat in their country. Due to this, the import of wheat through the port was stopped from May 14. However, wheat importation started that afternoon as the earlier tendered wheat export continued. Later, India again allowed the export of LC wheat till May 13. As a result, the import of wheat through the port continued.
He further said that once the export of old LC wheat by road trucks is over, India allows the export of open LC wheat by road for import by railway wagons. The wheat export period was till September 30. The import of wheat through the port has been stopped as the deadline has already expired. However, the whole wheat did not arrive at the appointed time. In this situation, the Indian businessmen applied to the High Court to extend the period for the export of remaining wheat. In the judgment of the case on October 13, the court extended the deadline to October 31. By doing this, wheat will start coming through the port again. However, no specific date is known as to when the wheat will arrive through the port.
Sohrab Hossain, public relations officer of Heli land port, said that 1,035 tons of wheat was imported from India last September 29 in 28 trucks through the port. Later, on the occasion of Durga Puja, import-export trade was closed for eight consecutive days till October 7. Import-export trade between the two countries started through the port on October 8 after the Puja holiday. But till now no new wheat has come through the port.
