The policy applies to a wide range of rice categories (rough, brown, fragrant, PB, and whole), with the exception of paddy for sowing (HS. In practice, the regime effectively became a permanent ban. Even BULOG and its agents were only occasionally issued with special import permits. For example, MoT issued import permits to BULOG in November 2005 for only 70 000 tonnes of rice and a further 210 000 tonnes in December 2006.