Govt doubles OMS rice price to Tk 30 per kg 

The government has doubled the price of rice at trucks of its Open Market Sale or OMS programme to Tk 30 per kilogram to adjust the market price.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 17 Sept 2017, 01:44 PM
Updated : 17 Sept 2017, 01:44 PM

The government decision came after the price of the staple food grain skyrocketed of late.

Flour will also be sold at the OMS trucks at Tk 17 per kg along with rice only in Dhaka city. In the other district headquarters, only rice will be sold.

Directorate General of Food Director General Md Badrul Hasan told bdnews24.com, “Many days have passed since the price of rice at OMS programme had been cut to Tk 15 from Tk 24 a kg. It won’t be (reasonable) if we keep the price unchanged while market prices have shot up.”

“We can’t keep a huge difference between the prices. It will raise the possibilities of leakage and other problems,” he added.

This year’s OMS programme was scheduled to open across the country on Sunday, but the trucks could not be seen at all district headquarters.
Hasan hoped the sale at OMS trucks would start at all the designated places within a day or two.
According to him, 120 OMS trucks will sell two tonnes of flour and one tonne of rice in Dhaka. Outside the capital, 507 trucks will sell rice.
The government has fixed warehouse price of the OMS rice at Tk 28.5 per kg.
At a news conference on Sept 14, Food Minister Qamrul Islam said the price of OMS rice would be unchanged at Tk 15 per kg, but now the government has raised the price while opening the sale.