In the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, the import of 9 lakh tonnes of rice was approved on Wednesday. The meeting was chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

After the meeting, the finance minister said that the food department will import four lakh tons of rice through direct purchase method. The remaining 500,000 tons of rice will also be imported by the Food Directorate on an urgent basis through international open tenders. The deadline for submission of tender for this will be 15 days from the date of publication of advertisement in the newspaper. Earlier the deadline was 42 days.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Public Procurement has approved eight proposals of TCB to buy soybean oil and lentils from domestic suppliers. Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division. Abdul Barik told the journalist that the proposal to buy five thousand tons of lentils from Dhaka’s Blue Sky Enterprise and Chittagong’s Masud & Brothers and Ruby Food Products has been approved. A total of 165 crore rupees will be spent to buy 15 thousand tons of lentils at the rate of 110 rupees per kg.

Apart from this, Meghna Edible Oil received 5.5 million liters for Tk 101.75 million in one shipment, and 30 million liters for Tk 548.8 million and 50 thousand in another shipment; 30 lakh liters from Bashundhara Multifood at Tk 54.9 million; The proposal to purchase 5.5 lakh liters from City Edible Oil at Tk 101.75 crore and 5.5 lakh liters from Super Oil Refinery at Tk 101.75 crore has been approved. The price of these oils will be 183 to 185 taka per liter.

After the meeting of the committee, the finance minister had a question from the journalists, the interest rate on bank loans is being increased in all countries of the world to control inflation, is there any progress in this regard in Bangladesh? In response, he said, ‘In a country like ours, it is difficult to control inflation by increasing interest rates. The way we implemented the interest rate of 9 and 6 percent in the banking sector, it is going well.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Government Procurement also approved the proposal to purchase 90 thousand tons of MOP and DAP fertilizer from Canada and Morocco at a cost of Tk 683 crore 13 lakh.