Govt permits 10 companies to import over 1 lakh tonnes of rice

The government on Tuesday authorised 10 private companies to import 1 lakh five thousand tonnes of rice to control the market.

A letter of permission was sent from the Ministry of Food to the Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce in this regard on 3 January, reports Jagonews24.

The letter stated that rice which is not basmati with a maximum of 5 percent broken grains, can be imported on condition after screening from the applicants.

The 10 enterprises are - Henna Enterprise of Joypurhat district (10,000 tonnes), Renu Construction of Dinajpur (15,000 tonnes), Kazi Sobhan Trading Corporation of Khulna (10,000 tonnes), Alal Agro Food Products (10,000 tonnes) and Alal Enterprise (5,000 tonnes) of Bogura, Deepto Enterprise of Naogaon (10,000 tonnes), Akash Enterprise (10,000 tonnes), Ghosh Automatic Rice Mill (15,000 tonnes), Mss Nurul Islam (10,000 tonnes) and Jagdish Chandra Roy (10,000 tonnes).

In terms of rice imports, the Letter of Credit (LC) must be opened within seven days of the issuance of this allotment.

The companies have been asked to inform the Food Ministry immediately after the LC opening.

Among the traders who have been allotted 5,000 tons, they have to market 50 percent of the rice locally within 10 days of opening the LC and the rest within 20 days.

The ministry has also stipulated that the companies that have been allotted 10,000 to 20,000 tonnes will have to market half of their rice locally within 15 days of opening the LC and the rest within 30 days.