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Food ministry finally calls for rice import duty |
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The food ministry has at last asked the National Board of Revenue to slap duty on rice imports in a last ditch move to arrest the downward spiral of prices of the grain and prevent farmers from racking up unsustainable losses.
Millers and analysts termed the initiative to be 'too late' as the harvest of boro paddy has already begun and the grain is trading at Tk 100 per maund (40 kilogram) below last year's prices.
The rice prices are also lower than those that prevailed at this time last year, according to Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.
The government should have imposed the duty much earlier as many farmers and millers have already incurred losses for rising imports from India, said Bappi Saha, a rice miller from Netrokona district.
Farmers get as low as Tk 450 for each maund of BRRI Dhan 28, the most popular rice variety during the boro season. The lowest price of the same variety was Tk 550 per maund during the harvesting period last year, he said.
The present price of paddy is much below the government estimate of farmers' production cost of Tk 20 each kilogram during the current boro season.
“The demand for paddy remains lukewarm among millers. Because of that, we are suffering from losses. We cannot clear our stocks for the imports.”
Saha said the farmers will be unable to recover their investment unless the government takes steps immediately.
Acknowledging the downward trend of rice prices owing to imports, the food ministry finally sought the NBR's help yesterday -- a move that comes four months after the parliamentary standing committee on the food ministry advised for discouraging imports.
Between July 1 last year and April 21 this year, rice imports stood at 12.91 lakh tonnes, which is more than three times the total imports last fiscal year, according to food ministry data. In fiscal 2013-14, 3.74 lakh tonnes of rice were imported.
Earlier, some millers and importers said the zero duty buoyed rice imports. The imported rice traded in the domestic market for household consumption has affected farmers and millers, they added.
But the government continued to ignore the concerns of millers and farmers, with some top government functionaries such as Food Minister Md Qamrul Islam maintaining that low-quality rice was being imported for 'cattle feed'.
Some aromatic rice was also imported but the amount of import was not so high compared to domestic production and consumption, Islam told The Daily Star last month.
A month later, the food ministry in its letter said huge quantities of rice are being imported from India, causing a downward trend in rice prices on the domestic market.
The letter, citing the government's boro rice procurement of 11 lakh tonnes during the current harvesting season, said the aim of the domestic purchase was to ensure fair prices of cereal for farmers and keep the market prices of grains stable.
The ministry said the prices of boro paddy usually fall due to increased supply after harvesting. So, the government typically purchases rice to rein in the price fall and ensure fair prices for growers.
“It will be difficult to ensure fair prices for producers if the massive rice imports continue,” said the ministry in the letter. Subsequently, it sought 'necessary measures' from the NBR to impose duty on rice imports.
Apart from imports, domestic production also rose this fiscal year.
Farmers bagged around 1.32 crore tonnes of aman rice in the immediate harvest, up 1.28 percent year-on-year. Aus output also edged up slightly after record boro production last year, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
M Asaduzzaman, a professorial fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said the government should have imposed duty on rice imports in February, such that the farmers got fair prices.
“It is too late. This means nothing now. The damage has already been done. The growers would have taken better care of their crops if the duty was slapped then,” he said.
However, Nirod Boron Saha, president of rice and paddy stockists' and wholesalers' association in Naogaon, wants the government to act on the decision right away.
The duty should be imposed within a week, as the boro harvest is yet to start in full swing in the northwest, one of the main rice producing regions, he said.
Source : thedailystar.net
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