2024-03-19 11:05:13
8 thousand metric tons of lentils are being imported from India to continue supplying pulses at subsidized prices to one crore family card holders of TCB during Ramadan. This will cost 76 crore rupees. This decision was taken by Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB). These pulses will be bought by direct purchase method.
According to sources, Agrico Trading Private Limited will supply these pulses from Chennai, India. As the price of lentil per metric ton is 871 dollars, the total cost will be 69 lakh 68 thousand dollars. Exchange rate of 110 taka per dollar will cost 76 crore 64 lakh 80 thousand taka in Bangladeshi currency.
According to sources from the Ministry of Commerce, there is an insufficiency in the supply of lentils in recent times. In this context, many tenders have been called for the purchase of lentils on an urgent basis in the international open tender system in the last few months, but no response has been received against some of them. In some cases the proposed rate is higher than the domestic market rate. Due to these reasons, lentils are being bought through direct purchase method to meet the urgent needs.
According to sources, tenders were invited to Indian companies in Chennai on January 4 for the purchase of lentils. The estimated TCB price for lentils of Indian origin up to CPT land port is $969.784. In contrast, Indian Agrico Trading Pvt Ltd’s proposed price was $877 per metric ton. Later, through negotiations, the price of pulses per metric ton was fixed at 871 dollars.
Earlier last year in November-December, lentils were bought from Indian company Uma Expo Pvt Ltd at a rate of $875 per metric ton.
According to the sources, according to the proposed contract, these pulses will be supplied in 25/50 kg sacks by sea or land port by March 29.
According to the sources of the Ministry of Commerce, TCB’s target to buy lentils in the current fiscal year 2023-2024 is 2 lakh 88 thousand metric tons. Against this, the contract for purchase of 1 lakh 52 thousand 500 metric tons of pulses has been executed so far and the proposal to buy 14 thousand metric tons of lentils is under process.
According to sources, a proposal in this regard may be presented for approval in the next meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Government Procurement.