Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is finally going to impose duty on rice imports to protect the farmers from price debacle, officials said.
“The Revenue Board will issue a circular in this regard next week in a bid to protect interest of the local farmers,” Md Nojibur Rahman, Chairman of NBR told The New Nation on Friday.
The Ministry of Food recently requested the NBR authorities 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 losses.
“We are going to impose duty on rice import realising the gravity of the situation,” added the NBR Chairman.
He, however, declined to comment about how much duty would be imposed on rice import.
Market insiders however termed the initiative as ‘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, they added.
Farmers are getting as low as Tk 450 for each maund of BRRI Dhaan 28 during the Boro season. The lowest price of the same variety was Tk 550 per maund during the harvesting period last year.
They said huge imports of cheaper rice from neighbouring India by the private sector into the country have led the price fall of rice in the local market making paddy cultivation unprofitable for the farmers.
It was found that imported rice cost 20-25 per cent less than that of local rice. For example, import cost of Swarna variety is Tk 22.5 to Tk 24.5 for a kilogram when it is Tk 27 to Tk 29 for the local variety.
Official statistics show, private importers brought in 1.3 million tonnes of rice from India in July-April period of this financial year (FY’15) when overall import was 0.374 million tonnes in FY’14.
“The government should have imposed the duty much earlier as many farmers and millers have already incurred losses for rising imports from India,” said a rice miller of Dinajpur.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is finally going to impose duty on rice imports to protect the farmers from price debacle, officials said.
“The Revenue Board will issue a circular in this regard next week in a bid to protect interest of the local farmers,” Md Nojibur Rahman, Chairman of NBR told The New Nation on Friday.
The Ministry of Food recently requested the NBR authorities 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 losses.
“We are going to impose duty on rice import realising the gravity of the situation,” added the NBR Chairman.
He, however, declined to comment about how much duty would be imposed on rice import.
Market insiders however termed the initiative as ‘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, they added.
Farmers are getting as low as Tk 450 for each maund of BRRI Dhaan 28 during the Boro season. The lowest price of the same variety was Tk 550 per maund during the harvesting period last year.
They said huge imports of cheaper rice from neighbouring India by the private sector into the country have led the price fall of rice in the local market making paddy cultivation unprofitable for the farmers.
It was found that imported rice cost 20-25 per cent less than that of local rice. For example, import cost of Swarna variety is Tk 22.5 to Tk 24.5 for a kilogram when it is Tk 27 to Tk 29 for the local variety.
Official statistics show, private importers brought in 1.3 million tonnes of rice from India in July-April period of this financial year (FY’15) when overall import was 0.374 million tonnes in FY’14.
“The government should have imposed the duty much earlier as many farmers and millers have already incurred losses for rising imports from India,” said a rice miller of Dinajpur.
