Staff Reporter :
Punitive measures is likely to be taken against the rice mill owners which hadn’t signed an agreement with the government to supply Aman rice to the government warehouses, despite having capacity to supply and hadn’t supplied rice following the contracts after signing agreements.
According to the Food Ministry instruction, the Directorate General of Food (DG Food) authority will cancel licenses of those which hadn’t signed agreements while deposits of those, which failed to supply at least 80 percent of contracted rice, will be confiscated.
The Food Ministry has recently sent a letter to the DG Food giving the directives to ensure the severe punishment to the owners of rice mills who failed to supply rice as per the agreement in the Aman season of 2021-22 ended in February this year for public procurement from local production.
At the same time, it was also directed to cancel the licenses of the rice mills which did not enter into a rice supply agreement with the government even though they were contracted during the Aman procurement season, following due process.
The letter said the licenses of those mills, which hadn’t signed contracts for Aman procurement, have to be revoked through due process.
At the same time, the Food Ministry asked to cancel the license and confiscate deposits of the rice mills which haven’t supplied any rice even after signing the agreement.
The ministry directed to confiscate the deposits at a proportional rate for failing to supply at least 80 percent of contracted rice. However, the DG Food has been asked to release the funds of those mills which had supplied 80 percent or more of the contract amount on special consideration.
In response to the letter from the ministry, the DG Food has directed the regional food controllers to send the names and addresses of the rice mills, fortnightly rice crashing capacity, license number and date by April 8.
The government had set a target of purchasing 3,00,000 tonnes of paddy and 7,20,000 tonnes of rice in the Aman season ended in February this year, beginning from November 8 last year. The procurement price was Tk 28 per kg for paddy and Tk 40 per kg of boiled rice.
