Finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed on Tuesday said that not all but the price a specific variety of rice increased on the local market and blamed that supply chain management problems were behind the price hike.
He, however, did not mention the variety while talking to reporters after a meeting of the advisory council on government purchase at the secretariat in the capital Dhaka.
The rise at the aman harvesting season is concerning, as aman is the second biggest crop after boro, he said.
The finance adviser said they had already looked into the supply chain problems in major rice growing districts, including Noagaon.
The matter is not linked to supply, he said.
Salehuddin said he had already asked the food adviser and commerce adviser to increase the government rice stock.
鈥業f necessary, we will release those on special open market sales,鈥� he said, adding that the market monitoring should be strengthened.
The advisory committee approved four proposals, including procurement of 50,000 tonnes of non-Basmati rice to be supplied by M/S Bagadiya Brothers Private Limited of India with per tonne costing $458.84.
A proposal of one cargo of liquefied natural gas to be supplied by M/S Excelerate Energy LP of the United States with per unit costing $15.69 was also approved.
The committee approved a proposal of awarding a contract worth Tk聽113 crore to a joint venture of BTC-AL which will build a 10-storey hostel at the Khulna University of Engineering and Technology in Khulna.
It also approved a variation proposal by Tk聽2.52 crore with the land acquisition and rehabilitation by the Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh under the Matarbari port development project.
