The government has increased the price of per kilogram rice and wheat rationing to 10 authorised entities by around Tk 9, but the new prices still remain below the price of rice distributed to destitute people.
Finance ministry officials calculated that the per-kg rice would be rationed to officials and employees of the Special Security Force, Directorate of National Security Intelligence, Armed Forces Division (Army, Navy, and Air Force), Bangladesh Police, Border Guard Bangladesh, Directorate of Ansar and Village Defense Party, Anti-Corruption Commission, Prisons Directorate, Department of Fire Service and Civil Defense and Department of Narcotics Control at Tk 11 from the previous price of Tk 2.10.
The new prices, effective from Monday, the first day of the financial year 2024-2025, will cost beneficiaries under the 10 authorised entities to buy one kilogram of wheat at Tk 9 from the previous Tk 1.80, said officials.
They said that the new rates were set using a dynamic price formula that bases each kilogramme of rice and wheat on 20 per cent of the total cost incurred by the government to distribute the same amount of staples.
On Tuesday, the finance division issued an order in this regard.聽
The new price, however, is still lower than the Tk 15 the government sells per kg of rice to 50 lakh destitute households across the country under the food-friendly programme under the food ministry.
The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh has been selling per kg of rice at Tk 30 since 2017 under its Open Market Sale to support fixed-income groups, now facing close to double-digit inflation over the past 23 months.
The price of per kg rice was Tk 15 in 2016 under the OMS programme.
The finance division officials said that despite the price adjustment of subsidised food items for vulnerable groups, almost all previous attempts by the government for the price adjustment of rice and wheat to authorised entities were not successful.
One of the moves was taken in 2008鈥�09 by the finance division, but the attempt was abortive.
Mirza Azizul Islam, who was the finance adviser during the period, said he could not remember the event.
He, however, noted that the amount of food subsidy provided by the government would go up if a periodical adjustment in the prices of subsidised and rationed items were not made.
The country has to import a lot of grain every year, he said, adding that the move was taken to reduce the food subsidy.
The food account of the proposed budget showed that the finance division wanted to bring down overall losses in the food operation to Tk 119 crore in FY 25 from Tk 1,234 crore in the outgoing FY24.
The rationing system was introduced by former military ruler HM Ershad, with the Army, Navy, and Air Force under the Armed Forces Division becoming the initial beneficiaries in the 1980s, said finance division officials.
The officials also said other entities came under the authorised group of rations later, mostly in the past one and a half decades.
An official or employee of the authorised group is entitled to buy 35 kg rice and 30 kg wheat at the rationed price.
Not only rice and wheat, the ration also includes five kg of sugar, eight kg of lentils, and eight litres of edible oil.聽
Sugar is available for Tk 3 per kg, lentils for Tk 1.20 per kg, and edible oil for Tk 2.30.聽
Police even get firewood as a ration.
Policy Research Institute executive director Ahsan H Mansur said the price of other ration items should be increased from their static position.