Government to import 50,000 tonnes of wheat
The cabinet committee on purchase approved the proposal at a meeting at the secretariat on Sunday
The government will import 50,000 tonnes of wheat from a Singapore-based company.
The cabinet committee on purchase approved the proposal at a meeting in the secretariat on Sunday, with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair.
After the meeting, Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque briefed reporters about the projects approved in the meeting.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
He said the government is going to import the wheat to meet the 2019-2020 fiscal target of procuring 50,000 tonnes of wheat, he said.
Singapore-based Swiss Singapore Overseas Private Ltd became the lowest bidder in the tender floated by the government for the procurement of the cereal. The government will buy the wheat at $268.14 a tonne, totaling around Tk114 crore, said the minister.
Dr Razzaque said the committee also approved a proposal for importing 30,000 tonnes of octane at a cost of Tk160 crore from Indonesia's state agency PT Bumi Siak Pusako Zapin under a government-to-government arrangement.
The purchase committee has made the decision to import octane because of the increasing demand for petrol in the local market, and also because of the increased price of compressed natural gas from July.
The government will import additional 30,000 tonnes of octane for November and December, he said.
The cabinet committee on purchase approved another proposal for increasing spending on the Payra bridge on Barishal-Patuakhali road, involving an estimated cost which is Tk147 crore more than the original contract value. Earlier, the total expenditure of the project was set at Tk1,022 crore.
Meanwhile, the cabinet committee on economic affairs has reappointed the Mott MacDonald Ltd, a consultant firm for the Dhaka Elevated Expressway, for three more years.
The committee also approved in principle the proposal for signing an agreement for appointing an independent engineer to the public-private partnership (PPP) project of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway.
Elaborating on the issue, Additional Secretary to the Cabinet Division Nasima Begum, who was present at the briefing, said the Mott MacDonald Ltd has been involved with the project since 2013.
It has been reappointed for three more years from December 2019 to December 2022, she said.
The government signed a deal in January 2011 to build the expressway stretching from Shahjalal International Airport to Kutubkhali on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway under public-private-partnership at a cost of around Tk9,000 crore.
