Bangladesh will procure 1.50 lakh tonnes of rice under direct procurement method (DPM) from India.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal after a virtual Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs meeting said that a proposal for procuring 1.50 lakh tonnes of non-basmati boiled rice under DPM method from Punjab State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd was approved in principle to meet emergency state purposes.

He said the meeting on Wednesday approved another proposal from the Ministry of Food to import another 1.50 lakh tonnes of non-basmati boiled rice from Thailand an 50,000 tonnes of white rice from Vietnam, reports BSS.

Kamal said Bangladesh ambassadors in India, Thailand and Vietnam would negotiate with the companies and organizations concerned to fix up the price of rice which will be imported.

He said the government is trying to procure rice from different sources so that no such problem is created if any source country or company failed to live up to its commitment.

(IBNS/UNI)