Bangladesh-India News: Bad relations with India have started affecting Bangladesh. The interim government of Bangladesh seems unable to control the food supply crisis and rising inflation. Meanwhile, in the neighboring country, there has been a rise in the prices of almost every variety of rice during the last three weeks.
Rice becomes expensive in Bangladesh
According to the report of The Daily Star, in Dhaka’s Karwan, Mirpur and Kazipur markets including other markets, the price of fine rice has increased by Rs 6-8, normal quality rice by Rs 5-6 and coarse rice by Rs 5-6 compared to three weeks ago. There has been an increase of Rs 2-3 per kg.
India helped but still the situation worsened
Amidst the changing relations with Bangladesh, India had helped Bangladesh in December 2024 under the policy of Neighborhood First. To meet consumer demand amid rising inflation in Bangladesh, the interim government there had decided to buy 50,000 tonnes of rice from India. According to Food Ministry data, the food stock in Bangladesh till December 17 was 11.48 lakh tonnes, of which about 7.42 lakh tonnes was rice.
According to the report, a trader from Karwan Bazaar in the capital Dhaka said that he has been doing rice business for 40 years and has never seen such inflation before. He said, “Despite tax exemption and imports from India, this kind of increase in rice prices is not normal.” He has blamed big companies and mill owners for this, who are engaged in competition for procurement and storage of paddy.
Bangladesh government’s planning failed
According to the report, MD of Mazumdar Group of Industries of Bangladesh said, “After getting permission to import rice, the company imported 20,000 tonnes of coarse rice, but its demand remained low. Due to this, import of fine rice from India started last week. “It has been done.”
In November, Bangladesh’s National Board of Revenue (NBR) removed import duty and regulatory tax on rice imports, and also reduced advance income tax from five percent to two percent. After this, the interim government allowed 277 private institutions to import 14.81 lakh tonnes of rice, so that domestic prices could be controlled by increasing the stock, but looking at the inflation situation in Bangladesh, it seems that the government’s planning failed. .
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