IT is reported that the government has at last realized the necessity to slap a duty on rice imports to arrest the downward spiral of prices of cereals aiming at preventing the country’s farmers from racking up unsustainable losses. Though the initiative is ‘too late’ as the harvest of Boro paddy has already begun and the grain is trading below the production cost, the government should impose the duty now, so that the farmers would get fair prices. Incurring huge losses due to mindless imports by using the duty-free rice import provision, the government has to be strict enough to sustain rice production in the country to meet domestic demand.
According to reports published in several dailies, farmers get as low as Tk 450 for each maund of BRRI Dhan 28, the most popular rice variety during the Boro season this year while the lowest price of the same variety was Tk 550 per maund during the harvesting period last year. The present price of paddy is much below the government estimates of farmers’ production cost of Tk 20 for each kilogram during the current Boro season. The demand for paddy remains lukewarm among millers as the millers failed to clear their stocks due to imports. As the Boro harvesting has already begun, the low demand of the variety to market will double the losses of farmers and it could create capital inadequacy and fears of decreasing yields next year, a threat to food security.
The Food Ministry finally sought the NBR’s help to impose duty on rice import on Thursday – a move that comes four months after a Parliamentary Standing Committee advised that imports be reduced. 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. The imported rice traded in the domestic market for household consumption has affected farmers and millers. But the government continued to ignore the concerns of millers and farmers, and even the Food Minister said that low-quality rice was being imported for ‘cattle feed’.
To clear its huge stocks our neighbouring country exports rice in large scale at low prices and it floods the domestic market and made it unstable while our indifferent government cheerfully welcomes the exports. For the betterment of the country’s farmers and particularly for a sustainable food security the government should impose high duty on rice import immediately. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure a balanced economy and equilibrium between supply and demand to sustain the macro-economy and to protect the national interest. The high duties should be in place for the near future.
