India may decide not to import rice for now-paper

NEW DELHI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The Indian government may decide not to import rice for now fearing a spike in global prices, the Economic Times newspaper said on Friday.

Government-owned State Trading Corp of India (STCI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), MMTC Ltd (MMTC.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) and PEC Ltd last month floated import tenders totalling 30,000 tonnes.

The state firms received 18 bids ranging from $373 to $599 per tonne.

"The idea was to discover a benchmark price, which appears to be a high $450 per tonne," the paper said, quoting an unnamed official.

MMTC Chairman Sanjiv Batra had said last week his firm might not import rice because of high price bids. See [ID:nDEL263959] (Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj)