The government yesterday declared 15 per cent incentives against exports of rice aimed at helping the farmers of the country and promote exports.

The incentives will be available until June 30, Bangladesh Bank said in a circular to chief executives of all banks issued yesterday.

The circular said the traders who will collect paddy locally and husk that from local mills are entitled to get 15 per cent incentives (over FoB rate) against their shipment from January 30.

The incentives will not applicable for the companies of the special Export Processing Zones (EPZs) and Economic Zones (EZs), said a Bangladesh Bank (BB) circular.

The incentive will also not be applicable, if the exporters take the facilities of duty draw-back and duty bonds for other materials, including wrapping materials, used for exporting rice.

Permission of all kinds of rice export started from the beginning of this financial year (FY20), after 2009, following a massive fall in paddy prices during the last Boro season.

Earlier on Wednesday, the government formed seven special monitoring committees to control rice prices by preventing the operation of syndicates.

This decision has been taken in light of the recent surge in the prices across the country.

Of late, prices of rice have witnessed a rise of Tk. 2–3 a kg even without any supply crunch.

Four such monitoring committees, under the food ministry, are expected to check rice prices in Dhaka’s major wholesale rice markets. The three others, under the Directorate of Food, will oversee the prices in other places.