Display Of Rice Price, Variety Must Be Tagged On Sacks

The government has made it mandatory for rice millers to display their name, location, production date, price, and variety prominently on all rice sacks prior to distribution. Such instructions will be effective from Pahela Baishakh (April 14, Sunday).

The Ministry of Food announced this information in a circular on Saturday.

According to the notification, it has been confirmed that rice produced from the same type of rice is being sold in the market under different varieties and prices after visiting some of the rice-producing districts of the country.

Millers, wholesalers, and retailers blame each other when the price of rice goes up to unreasonable levels or increases suddenly. Due to this, consumers are facing difficulty in buying desired varieties of paddy and rice at fair prices and in many cases, they are suffering financially.

To overcome this situation, to keep the market price of rice at a stable and reasonable level, and to facilitate the rice market monitoring instructions have been given.

These include- rice-producing millers mentioning the name of the producing mill, district, and upazila, production date, mill gate price, and variety of paddy/rice on the bags of rice before supplying rice from the warehouse for commercial purposes. This information should be written in ink on the bag.

All types of rice sacks and packets supplied by the rice-producing mill owner must mention weight. The same guidelines should be followed in case of corporate bodies. In this case, the company can specify the maximum retail price along with the mill gate price.

In case of violation, necessary measures will be taken as per Section 6 and Section 7 of the Food Production, Storage, Transfer, Transport, Supply, Distribution, Marketing (Prevention of Harmful Activities) Act-2023.

One will get a maximum imprisonment of 2 years or a maximum fine of Tk 10 lakh or both in case of Section 6 violation. And for Section-7 violation one will serve a maximum imprisonment of 5 years or a fine of Tk 15 lakh or both.