Govt to buy 12.5m litres of soybean oil, 5,000 tonnes of lentils for the poor

It will also buy 5,000 tonnes of lentils for sale at subsidised prices through the TCB

The government is going to buy 12.5 million litres of soybean oil and 5,000 tonnes of lentils from local sources for sale to low-income people at subsidised prices through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh or TCB.

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase cleared the commerce ministry proposals to buy the staples at Tk 2.7 billion in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

Md Abdul Barik, an additional cabinet secretary, said the government will directly purchase the goods from seven companies due to “urgency”.

The companies are Super Oil Refinery, Bashundhara Multi Foods Product, Sinha Edible Oil, Shun Shing Edible Oil, ACI Pure Flour, M/S Roy and Nadim Nava Ltd.

The government will pay between Tk 171 and Tk 173.95 per litre for the soybean oil and Tk 111.10 per kg for the lentils.

Barik said another 13 purchase proposals with a total budget of Tk 18.94 billion were greenlighted in the meeting.

The meeting also okayed dropping the Mirpur Integrated Township Development PPP project, he added.

Of the other proposals, seven were from the shipping ministry, four from the industries ministry, one from the Road Transport and Highways Division and another from the Local Government Division.

The committee authorised the improvement of a highway from Kushtia-Meherpur at Tk 1.01 billion.

The import of 30,000 tonnes of bagged prilled urea fertiliser from Qatar at Tk 1.52 billion was approved. Another 30,000 tonnes of bagged granular urea fertiliser will be bought from Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company Limited at Tk 1.51 billion.

The committee also approved the two separate imports of 30,000 tonnes of bulk granular urea fertiliser – one at Tk 1.51 billion and the other at Tk 1.49 billion.

A proposal to appoint consulting companies for Bangladesh Regional Waterway Transport Project 1 was also given the go-ahead. It will cost Tk 820 million.