Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) will directly procure some 12.5 million litres of soybean oil and 5,000 kilogrammes of lentils from seven local suppliers without following any competitive process.
Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGB) in a meeting, with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair, approved the proposals in this regard on Wednesday, reports UNB.
Commerce Ministry placed the proposals on behalf of the TCB, the state marketing agency.
As per the proposals, some 4.0 million litres of the edible will be procured from Super Oil Refinery at Tk 173.95 per litre while the remaining 8.5 million litres will be purchased from three suppliers at Tk 171 per litre.
Of the three suppliers, Shun Shing Edible Oil Ltd, a subsidiary company of Bangladesh Edible Oil Limited (BEOL), will supply 2 million litres while Bashundhara Multi Food Products Limited (BMFPL), a subsidiary of Bashundhara Group, will supply 3.5 million litres and Sena Edible Oil Industry, a subsidiary of Sena Kalyan Sangstha Bangladesh, will provide 30,000 litres of soybean oil.
The 4.0 million litres of edible oil will cost Tk 695.8 million while 8.5 million litres will cost Tk 1.45 billion.
Some 5,000 kgs of lentils will be procured from three suppliers at a cost of Tk 555.0 million with each kg price at Tk 111.
Of these, some 3,000 kg will be purchased from ACI Limited, 1,000 kg from Nadil Traders and 1,000 from Roy Traders.
Abdul Barik, Additional secretary of the Cabinet, who briefed reporters about the outcomes of the Cabinet body meeting, said the TCB will procure the commodities through the direct procurement method (DPM) showing the cause of emergency needs.
The TCB, a subordinate body of the Commerce Ministry, will sell these goods to people at controlled rates as part of the government’s open market sale (OMS) programme, he added.
The CCGP also approved another 13 proposals from different ministries.
Of these, the state-owned Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) will procure some 120,000 metric tonnes of fertiliser from four international suppliers.
Of these, 30,000 metric tonnes of bagged prilled urea fertiliser will be procured from Muntajat of Qatar at a cost of Tk 1.53 billion, while another 30,000 metric tonnes of bagged granular from Kafco at Tk 1.52 billion.
Some 30,000 metric tonnes of bulk granular urea will be imported from SABIC Agri-nutrients Company of Saudi Arabia at Tk 1.52 billion and another 30,000 metric tonnes from the same Saudi company at Tk 1.49 billion.
Each metric tonne of urea from the four lots will cost between $443.35 and $524.50 which earlier cost between $588 and $557.87 per metric tonne.
This shows that the cost of urea fertiliser is decreasing in the global market which had crossed $ 1,000 immediately after the Russia-Ukraine war began.
Six separate proposals from the Chattagram Port Authority under the Ministry of Shipping received the nod of the committee to hire six berth operators at the port for the next 5 years.