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Dhaka and Delhi are set to sit on August 17 or 20 for strategies to fix annual import quota on six commodities and food-grains from India with an eye to ensuring an unhindered supply chain.
The Bangladesh side has already conveyed the proposed with the Indian side through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) recently, according to sources.
The meeting will be held online.
Senior commerce secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh will lead the Bangladesh side with representatives from the PMO, foreign, food and agriculture ministries, the revenue board, and the Trade and Tariff Commission.
On the bilateral quota meeting, an inter-ministerial preparatory meeting was held at commerce ministry with senior commerce secretary in the chair on Wednesday.
When asked, joint secretary (FTA-1) Md Abdus Samad Al Azad said, "A bilateral discussion between Dhaka and New Delhi on annual import quota on some commodities and food grains from India for Bangladesh is expected to be held on August 17 or 20 next."
The Indian authorities recently proposed bilateral talks on the annual food quota through the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
The upcoming meeting will discuss issues related to the volume of foodgrain imports from India by state and private agencies of Bangladesh, a source said.
Bangladesh will place the quota issue on the sidelines of the upcoming '18th Heads of State and Government Summit' of the Group of 20 (G20), scheduled for September 2023 in New Delhi.
Earlier, Bangladesh shared a revised list of six commodities (wheat, rice, sugar, onion, garlic and ginger) with India to stabilise its domestic market.
In the December 2022 Indo-Bangla commerce ministerial meeting, Dhaka proposed a quota of 4.5-million tonnes of wheat, 2.0-million tonnes of rice, 1.5-million tonnes of sugar, 0.7-million tonnes of onion, 0.125-million tonnes of ginger, 30,000 tonnes of lentil and 10,000 tonnes of garlic.
However, it sent a revised list later following Delhi's recommendation to rationalise it.
The new proposal asked for 2.5-million tonnes of wheat, 1.5-million tonnes of rice, 1.0-million tonnes of sugar, 0.6-million tonnes of onions and 0.1-million tonnes of ginger.
But Dhaka increased the volume of garlic to 50,000 tonnes from 10,000 tonnes, an increase of 400 per cent from the quantity in the previous proposal.
As proposed, the government is considering purchasing 0.8-1.0-million tonnes of rice and 0.5-0.7-million tonnes of wheat, and the private sector 0.5-0.7-million tonnes of rice and 2.0-million tonnes of wheat.
The revised quota on sugar, onions, garlic and ginger has only been proposed for private imports.
In mid-January 2023, commerce ministry sat with officials and stakeholders concerned to review the proposal and facilitate the import of items from India.
During the meeting, the ministry formed a five-member high-powered committee to prepare a revised annual import quota on food items from India.
The committee prepared the report based on the country's last 10-year detailed demand, production, import and supply data of the items.
Dhaka has excluded lentils from the revised proposal as India will not provide it due to shortages of pulses in times of crisis, in response to Dhaka's request.
The annual local demand for sugar is over 2.0-million tonnes, and over 0.6-million tonnes of lentil are needed to meet the demand. Of them, 0.4-million tonnes are imported and 0.2-million tonnes produced locally.
Besides, more than 2.5-million tonnes of onions are needed every year, and 0.6-0.7-million tonnes need to be imported, with over 90 per cent coming from India.
Bangladesh annually imports 6.0-million tonnes of wheat, with a major portion of the item being imported from neighbouring India, according to a high official.
In March 2022, India in its national budget offered an export quota on essential goods to Nepal and Bhutan.
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