The price of rice has been increasing in the market due to the supply chain disruption amid the recent destruction across the country in the name of movement, the ongoing countrywide curfew and lean period of food production.
According to the consumers and government officials, increasing the price by Tk 5 to Tk 10 per kilogram in the market, rice is being sold at Tk 60 to Tk 80 per kg depending on the variety and quality of the rice.
Amid this increasing trend of rice price, the government has decided to take some immediate measures including special drives to monitor the market and reopen Open Market Sale (OMS) programme, and OMS through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), so that the price of the staple food can be controlled and brought under the purchasing capacity of the mass people, especially the lower income group people.
According to the Food Ministry officials, the Directorate General of Food (DG Food) under the Ministry would start Open Market Sale (OMS) programme from Monday, July 29, to ensure adequate rice supply in the market for the poor and ultra poor people.
Under the OMS programme, each of the OMS cardholders will get 5kg of rice once every week at a price of Tk 30 per kg while the TCB cardholders will get 5kg of rice twice a month at a price of Tk 30 per kg and common people, who do not have TCB card, will be given the same amount of rice against their NID cards, according to the Ministry sources. The TCB cardholders, however, would get two litres of edible oil and two kg of lentil against their cards or NIDs along with the rice.
According to the Food Ministry sources, the Ministry has already released 50,000 tonnes of rice against the TCB to sell it under its OMS programme.
However, more than OMS 850 dealers of the DG Food across the country will sell rice in the metropolitan and district headquarters from their designated OMS shops and trucks. Each of the dealers will get two tonnes of rice and 500kg of flour (Atta) to sell those to the cardholders. Per kg of Atta will be sold at Tk 18 in the OMS programme.
While talking to this correspondent at his Secretariat office on Thursday, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said the Ministry has decided to start the OMS programme from Monday. To start the activity, the Ministry has already completed all of its preparations.
"The OMS is a regular programme of the government to keep the rice market stable. But, the Ministry had to suspend the programme for a period due to the recent violence and destruction. The miscreants of BNP and Jamaat have hijacked the peaceful movement of the students and conducted massive destruction from July 18 to 25. In this situation, the supply chain was disrupted seriously. The government had to declare curfew to control the situation. As a result, rice price has increased across the country," he said.
He said, "In this situation, as soon as the situation started improving, the government decided to start the OMS again, so that supply of adequate rice in the market can be ensured. Once the OMS programmes of the DG Food and TCB start, adequate supply of rice will be ensured and rice price will start reducing."
Regarding the reasons of rice price hike, he also said, "Some of the rice mills have stopped production during violent situation. Same time, it is the lean period for the rice market as the farmers are now planting paddy in the fields. Taking the advantage of the situation, some errant traders have increased rice price to pocket more profits. They will be prevented with stringent measures."
He, however, claimed that the government has now a stock of around 1,681,234 metric tons of food grain in its godowns. Of the grain, boiled rice is 11,80,538 tonnes, 405,000 tonnes of wheat and 200,000 tonnes of paddy (which is equivalent to 148,000 tonnes of rice).
The government procurement drive of internal boro rice is now going on. Within this period, around 8 lakh tonnes of rice have already been collected while the drive will continue till August 31 this year. There will be no problem to ensured adequate supply of rice in the market, he hoped.
