Govt to amend rules for faster purchase of commodities
The government is going to amend procurement rules to import rice, wheat and other commodities in the fastest possible time.
The cabinet committee on economic affairs yesterday approved a proposal to reduce the time it took to make such purchases.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal at a press briefing said they needed to reduce the time to secure competitive prices in a volatile global market.
According to the public procurement rules (PPR), nothing can be procured in a short time through international tenders, he said.
The PPR only allows saving time for domestic purchases in cases where it is a necessity of the state, he informed, adding that nothing of such was mentioned about international procurements.
"Since we need to import rice from abroad, we directed the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) to bring amendments to the public procurement rules," he said.
It now takes 40 to 42 days to import goods through international tenders, said the minister.
But in a volatile global market, prices of commodities like rice, edible oil, wheat and others fluctuate daily and so the procurement needs to be done in a shorter period of time, he said.
"If it takes such a long time, we will not be able to secure competitive prices and the international bidders will not bid," he said.
The time taken for making such procurements should be a maximum of one week as prices remain valid within this period, he opined.
"Within this timeframe the tenderer would offer the price and we would complete all the required procurement procedures like opening of LCs and others so that they can make the shipment by the period," he said.
A proposal of the Directorate of Food for importing 1 lakh tonnes of non-basmati rice from India was placed in the meeting yesterday but the committee decided to approve it in the next meeting following the IMED amendments to the procurement rules.
However, the government has till date given approval for the directorate to import 4.50 lakh tonnes of rice in a bid to boost food grain reserves.
Of the amount, the cabinet committee on purchase on February 3 approved the import of 1 lakh tonnes from Myanmar, albeit under two conditions.
On January 6, it permitted another 2.5 lakh tonnes to be purchased from Indian and Singaporean firms.
The remaining 1 lakh tonnes got the nod in December 2020.
As for private imports, the government since January 3 granted permission to 320 private firms to import 10.14 lakh tonnes of rice at a reduced duty of 25 per cent.
In yesterday's meeting the economic affairs committee also approved a proposal of the Liberation War affairs ministry to follow direct procurement method to arrange drone, aerial and firework shows marking the golden jubilee of independence on March 26.
"We want to display our previous achievements to the countrymen through such shows," said the minster.
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