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Our Bureau

Kolkata, April 19 The Centre has no plans to relax the ban on export of non-basmati rice to Bangladesh, according to Mr Sanjeev Nandwani, Joint Director-General of Foreign Trade, Government of India.

Replying to queries by presspersons on the sidelines of a conference on ‘Facilitating India-Bangladesh bilateral trade’, organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) here on Saturday, Mr Nandwani said: “The ban remains applicable to all countries including Bangladesh as there are no further clarifications from the Centre on this.”

He, however, did not clarify whether the ban would cover the already contracted export of 5,00,000 tonnes of non-basmati rice to Bangladesh.

India banned the export of non-basmati rice in the first week of February to keep ensure domestic supply and contain soaring inflation. Since then, there have been speculations since then whether India would consider relaxing the ban for Bangladesh.

In his inaugural address, Mr S.K. Jain, Chairman of FIEO, Eastern region, stressed the need for having more road routes to Bangladesh for boosting bilateral trade.

“The imbalance in trade between the two countries can be corrected through new initiatives depending on the kind of leverage Bangladesh Government can provide us,” Mr Jain said.

Trade with Bangladesh had also been hit by the gradual rise in cost of transaction since 2001, said Mr Prabir De, Fellow, Research and Information System for Developing Countries.

Mr De referred to three large rail/road projects due to come up between 2008 and 2012 to improve connectivity with Bangladesh and these included the Agartala-Akhaura-Chittagong railway project at a cost of $120 million to be funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Governments of the two countries, upgradation of Kolkata-Petrapol-Benapole corridor at a cost of $150 million to be funded jointly by ADB and the Union Government and integrated check-posts along the border at a cost of $70 million to be funded by India.

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‘No plans to relax ban on non-basmati rice exports’

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