Cabinet today made the decision to provide people affected by the drought a ‘relief pack’ with essential items worth Rs. 5,000 per month, for the next two months, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said.
Addressing the media at the end of the meeting with the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Cost of Living (CSCL) at the Ministry of Finance he said the beneficiaries would receive Rs 2,500 worth of good every two weeks.
As the prevailing drought further devastates paddy harvests, Minister Amaraweera said that the CSCL had also made the decision to decrease the special commodity levy on the import of rice from Rs. 5 per kilo to Rs. 25 cents per kilo.
Essential Items Importers Association Secretary Ilamanathan explained that given the reduction in tax, importers have now been able to provide white raw rice (Vietnam) at Rs. 60 per kilo, par boiled (Nadu) at Rs. 72 per kilo and ponni rice at Rs. 75-76 per kilo.
In addition, the Cabinet Sub-Committee has also opened up imports for wheat flour and wheat grain: “Cess tax on wheat flour has been reduced from Rs. 25 to Rs. 15 and that of wheat grain has been reduced from Rs. 9 to Rs. 6”, Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera said.
He added that the maximum retail price of packeted flour too has been removed.
“The main reason behind reducing price of flour is the prevailing drought. We are not aiming to make people switch to flour - rice is our focus, but local harvests have drastically reduced due to the drought. In the next few months, even though the droughts continue, the government will ensure that the price of essential items remain stable. The government is also taking action to encourage food production,” Minister Amaraweera said.
The Fisheries Ministry has also requested that the Special Commodity Levy on wet fish be reduced by Rs. 50. Accordingly the levy on imported thalapath and koppara have been reduced from Rs. 75 to Rs. 25.
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce in the meantime has drawn up MoUs to import 100,000MT of par boiled (Nadu) rice and another 25,000MT of white raw rice from Thailand. Another MoU has been drawn up to import 30,000MT of white raw rice from Myanmar.
The CWE, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce announced, had also “started extracting 51,000 MT of paddy lying with the Paddy Marketing Board’s warehouses to mill in CWE’s own mills and through private millers”.
Thus the Ministry expected a total of 187,000 MT of rice to flood the market immediately. The country consumes 200,000MT of rice each month.