Finance
Rice Price Govt. decides to decrease rice storage capacity of mill owners
Dhaka, December 26: Paddy storage capacity of rice mill owners has been reduced. The government took this step amid rising prices of paddy and rice. On December 21, the Ministry of Food issued an amended order in this regard.
An order was issued on 4 May 2011 under the Control of Essential Commodities Act, 1956, stating the quantity of food grains or food items (rice, paddy, wheat, sugar, edible oil, pulses) to be stored.
According to the order, in the case of automatic, major and husking rice mills at the rice mill owner level, paddy could be stored up to 30 times in fortnightly (15 days) 5 times the pruning capacity.
Now, according to the amended order, in case of automatic, major and husking rice mills, 3 times the fortnightly pruning capacity of 8 hours daily, paddy can be stored for 30 days.
The country's rice market has been on the rise for the past few days. Despite the rainy season, the price of coarse rice, known as 'poor man's rice', has reached Tk 50 per kg. Low-income people are struggling to buy rice.
The government's aman procurement program is going to fail due to high rice prices in the market. At the same time, government reserves are declining.
In this situation, the government has started importing to handle the market. Food department officials say that even though the season of aman is massive, the price of paddy is high, which is affecting rice. They think that the production of aman has been less than the target, so this situation has arisen.
