The government will import 50,000 tonnes of parboiled rice from India through the railways for the first time.

The cabinet committee on purchase approved the proposal at a meeting chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday.

The rice will be imported from India's Kolkata and Chhattisgarh by the railways through Benapole, Darshana and Rohanpur borders, Shahida Akhter, additional secretary of the cabinet division, told a virtual media briefing after the meeting.

The rice will be brought through the railways from India for the first time so that it can be imported in the shortest possible time, she said.

Indian firm Saurabh Industries Ltd will supply the rice at $386 per tonne, she said, adding that the estimated price will be Tk 32.73 per kg.

The government has moved to procure rice from international markets as the stocks at the public warehouses have hit an unusual low.

According to the food ministry, the government had 4.62 lakh tonnes of food grains in its stock on April 20, the lowest since 2008 when the stock fell to 2.8 lakh tonnes.

The stock was 11.20 lakh tonnes on July 1, 2020, and 15.99 lakh tonnes on July 1, 2019.

The Food Planning Monitoring Committee on April 22 decided to collect 10 lakh tonnes of parboiled and 1.5 lakh tonnes of sunned rice from local dealers to enhance the food stocks. The committee also decided to buy 6.5 lakh tonnes of paddy from the farmers.

It has primarily decided to buy parboiled rice at Tk 40 per kg and sunned rice at Tk 39. Officials said the price of paddy would be fixed either at Tk 27 or Tk 28 a kg.

Yesterday, Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque virtually inaugurated paddy purchase directly from farmers through lottery on 'Krishaker App' in Khulna.

The government has signed several deals to import 7.50 tonnes of rice under government-to-government arrangements. Some 2.43 lakh tonnes of rice have been imported so far.

At the private level, 5.64 lakh tonnes of rice were imported as of April 11 of the fiscal year.

GOVT TO BUY MORE LNG

The cabinet committee yesterday approved a proposal to buy 33.60 lakh MMBtus of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Excelerate Energy LP of the United States will supply the fuel at $9.53 per MMBtu (million British thermal units).

The committee also gave its nod to another proposal to buy 33.60 lakh MMBtus of LNG from the same company at $ 8.93 per MMBtu.

The committee approved three proposals to buy 1.5 lakh tonnes triple superphosphate fertilizer from a Tunisian fertilizer producer at $568 per tonne, 1.8 lakh tonnes of MPO fertilizer from Belarus at $292.87 per tonne, and 30,000 tonnes of urea fertilizer from Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company Ltd at $362.5 per tonne.

NO NEW PROJECT ON PUBLIC WORKS TILL JUNE 30

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the cabinet committee on the public procurement would not give the go-ahead to any public work for construction-related projects in the rest of the current fiscal year.

"In the meeting, five proposals were placed for the construction of flats for the employees of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works. We did not consider any of them."

The minister said no approval would be given to projects on public works until June 30.

"However, the work of the ongoing projects and foreign-funded projects will go on."

The cabinet committee's decision came just seven days after the government asked all ministries, except health and agriculture, not to issue work orders for any physical work in the current fiscal year, ending on June 30.

The cabinet committee yesterday approved 14 purchase proposals involving Tk 3,638.57 crore.