Costly import of rice

Because our rice stock is at an all-time low, the government has sanctioned import of 2.5 lakh tonnes of rice from Vietnam. Despite the fact that the price for this import is higher than a similar sanction from two weeks back, we realise the necessity of this move: the rice from Vietnam, though costlier, will be available earlier.

But, the issue here is not about the necessity of buying the rice, spending Tk 56.53 crore in total more compared to international prices, but how we got to this vulnerable position in the first place. Our public granaries now have only 1.98 lakh tonnes of rice left compared to the normal five to six tonnes. The shortage has led to a price hike, which resulted in ordinary citizens having to bear the burden of excessively high price of rice. The stock of rice dwindled from last year's reserve because of the laudable distribution programmes such as VGD, open market sale etc. that the government had pursued. But, the failure was in restocking: traders had refused to sell to the government at prices lower than the market price. This created an imbalance and, ultimately, only 15,000 tonnes of rice could be procured against the target of 15 lakh tonnes – a mere 1 percent.

The signs were there for months that we were heading towards this situation. Mismanagement of the food ministry, expecting that traders would sell rice to the government at such low prices, and the late response, brought us here. Then, why had the food ministry failed to ring the alarm bells in time? Why was the crisis stock allowed to dwindle so low before action was taken? And, given that a section of people are set to make windfall profits from the intermediate situation, questions can be raised if the situation was artificially created.

We appreciate the measures the government is taking to tackle the price hike and rice shortage. But, with that, we urge that an immediate inquiry be launched to find out whether there was collusion which has led us to this lose-lose situation.