Govt to buy 5 lakh tonnes of wheat from Russia

The government has taken steps for faster import of 5 lakh tonnes of wheat from Russia.

The cabinet committee on economic affairs yesterday approved a proposal in this regard to bring in the cereal from the Russian Federation under a government-to-government initiative.

For faster import, the cabinet committee also reduced the tender submission time to 15 days from 45 days since the publication of the tender in newspapers.

This time the government will procure 2 lakh tonnes of wheat following the direct purchase method and the rest 3 lakh tonnes through open tender.

In the revised budget for fiscal 2020-21, the government wanted to import 5.66 lakh tonnes of wheat but it could bring in 4.78 lakh tonnes as of June 23 this year.

For the upcoming fiscal year of 2021-22, the wheat import target has been set at 5 lakh tonnes.

In a period between July 1 in 2019 to June 30 in 2020, the government imported over 64 lakh tonnes of wheat.

Of it, 367.59 lakh tonnes were brought in by the government and 5.99 lakh tonnes by private importers.

Yesterday, the cabinet committee on public purchase also gave the go-ahead to another proposal to import 33.6 lakh Metric Million British Thermal Unit of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Petrobangla under the fuel and mineral resources division will bring in the LNG from US firm M/S. Excelerate Energy LP at a cost of over Tk 448 crore.