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India is close to granting revised quota on some commodities and food grains for Bangladesh with an eye to ensuring an unhindered supply chain, sources said.
"India is already in consultation with its ministries concerned in this regard," the Bangladesh high commission in New Delhi has said in a letter.
Delhi is currently examining and evaluating Dhaka's proposal for granting it such annual quota, according to a high official said.
Bangladesh has already shared a revised list of six commodities (wheat, rice, sugar, onion, garlic and ginger) with the next-door India to keep the former's domestic market stable.
In the December 2022 Indo-Bangla commerce ministerial meeting, Dhaka proposed quota on 4.5-million tonnes of wheat, 2.0-million-tonne rice, 1.5-million-tonne sugar, 0.7-million-tonne onion, 0.125-million-tonne ginger, 30,000-tonne lentil and 10,000-tonne garlic.
But following Delhi's recommendation to rationalise quota on Bangladeshi commodities, Dhaka has sent a revised list in this connection.
The new proposal cuts by 44.4 per cent to 2.5-million tonnes of wheat, 25 per cent to 1.5-million tonnes of rice, 33.33 per cent to 1.0-million tonnes of sugar, 14.28 per cent to 0.6-million tonnes of onions and 20 per cent to 0.1-million tonnes of ginger.
But it jacks up the volume of garlic to 50,000-million tonnes from 10,000-million tonnes, an increase by 400 per cent from the quantity in the previous proposal.
The proposed imports will be for the rest of fiscal year (FY) 2022-23, reads a commerce ministry letter sent to foreign ministry for forwarding it to Delhi.
According to the revised proposal, some 0.8-1.0-million tonnes and 0.5-0.7-million tonnes of rice have been proposed for government and private buys respectively.
Some 0.5-0.7-million tonnes and 2.0-million tonnes of wheat have been proposed for government and private imports respectively.
The revised quota on sugar, onions, garlic and ginger has only been proposed for private imports.
The government will re-fix food-quota proposal for Indian commodities for Bangladesh considering domestic demand and production every year, the letter mentions.
Dhaka has requested Delhi to inform it in reasonable time in case of any ban on export of such essentials so Bangladesh does not face any food crisis, it reads.
In mid-January, commerce ministry sat with officials and stakeholders concerned for taking the next course of action to review the quota proposal to facilitate import of the items from India.
In the meeting, the ministry formed a five-member high-powered committee for preparing a revised annual import quota on food items from India.
The committee prepared the report in the context of the country's last 10-year detailed demand, production, and import and supply data of the items.
It was supposed to revise only rice, wheat and sugar out of seven.
Dhaka has excluded lentil from the revised proposal as India will not provide it as per Dhaka's request as it faces shortages of pulses in times of crisis.
To ensure food security amidst the possible food crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine war and Covid-19, Dhaka requested Delhi for annual import quota on commodities at the ministerial meeting, senior commerce secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh told reporters earlier.
"We've proposed as per the imported volume of wheat and sugar last fiscal. The volume was increased significantly," he said, adding that the proposal was given against the backdrop of the war.
The proposed estimation for garlic, ginger, onion and lentil is right, according to Mr Ghosh.
He said the import trend from India increased on the aspect of food security and crisis period as importers can bring in goods within a short span of time.
Besides, prices of such items in India are lower. Bangladesh imports the highest volume of the key consumer items from India every year.
The local annual demand for sugar is more than 2.0-million tonnes.
Over 0.6-million tonnes of lentil are needed to meet the annual demand. Of them, 0.4-million tonnes are imported and 0.2-million tonnes produced locally.
More than 2.5-million tonnes of onion are needed every year. Of them, 0.6-0.7-million tonnes need to be imported and more than 90-per cent come from India.
Bangladesh annually imports 6.0-million tonnes of wheat and a major portion of the item is imported from the neighbouring India, a high official said.
India offered export quota on essential goods to Nepal and Bhutan in its national budget in March 2022.