The duty is effective from Sunday, according to Finance Minister AMA Muhith. He told a pre-budget discussion of the chiefs of the parliamentary standing committees on Sunday that the decision aimed at ensuring fair price of rice during the current Boro season.
On Saturday evening, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury said in a BBC programme that the government had taken the decision to restrict rice import. She said Bangladesh was self-sufficient in rice cultivation, obviating the need to import.
The government had not imported rice in the past three years but importers seized the opportunity in the absence of any duty on food imports.
Farmers had been protesting against the imports, saying they were unable to recover cultivation costs because of imports from India at cheaper rates.
It has been alleged that Bangladeshi farmers are not getting remunerative prices because of imports from India and boost in indigenous cultivation.
The agriculture minister said India dumped rice preserved in warehouses for over two years. “Many dishonest businessmen in Bangladesh took the chance to import rice,” she alleged.
According to Bangladesh Bank’s analysis of import data, Letters of Credit (LC) worth $ 476.4 million were opened in the first nine months (July-March) of the 2014-15 fiscal year. The amount was 66 percent higher than that of the same period last year. Importers had opened LC worth $ 430 million in that period.
Source:bdnews24.com
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