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Ban on rice exports to continue: Commerce Secretary
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newsbyte on 27 May, 2008 10:37:27
 
India has no plans to relax the current ban on rice exports despite a bumper
paddy harvest in 2008 and record procurement expected by state-run agencies,
Commerce Secretary G K Pillai said in New Delhi on Tuesday.
"There is no proposal to ease the ban on rice exports," Pillai told reporters
on the margins of a conference on global trade talks organised by the
International Chamber of Commerce.
He also indicated that the minimum export price on basmati would also continue.
The commerce secretary's remarks come against the backdrop of Finance Minister
P Chidambaram's announcement on Friday that state-run agencies had made the
highest-ever procurement of wheat of 20.7 million tonnes in 2008.
He also said it would be similar situation for rice by the time the season
ended in September 2008.
"Roughly, 98.4 per cent of wheat that arrived in Punjab has been procured by
the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and 99 per cent has been procured in
Haryana," Chidambaram told a press conference in New Delhi
"For rice, we have procured 24.5 million tonnes and we hope to procure much
more by the time the season ends in September 2008," the finance minister added.
The government set a target of procuring 15 million tonnes of wheat in 2008.
"We now have ample supplies of wheat and rice,” he added.
India, along with some Asian nations, had banned export of rice in a bid to
ease prices of the commodity after headline inflation in the country scaled
40-month highs.