Oil, lentil, sugar on OMS from today

Soybean oil, lentils and sugar will be made available from today at Open Market Sale trucks of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) to aid low-income people during the lockdown and ahead of Eid-ul-Azha. 

The state-owned TCB in a notification yesterday said soybean oil would cost Tk 100 per litre, lentils Tk 55 per kilogramme (kg) and sugar Tk 55 per kg.

Each customer will be allowed to buy 2 to 4 kg of sugar, 2 kg of lentils and 2 to 5 litres of soybean oil at a time.

The sale would be run in every divisional city, district and upazila through its 450 trucks.

Besides, every truck will carry 500 to 800 kgs of sugar, 300 to 600 kgs of lentils and 800 to 1,200 litres of soybean oil, according to the notification.

The move comes at a time when people, mostly from the low-income groups, are struggling to afford daily essential commodities due to the economic fallouts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is especially the case of the daily wage-earners who have been passing miserable days amidst the soaring prices of almost every essential commodity in the local market as they are unable to go out to find work during the ongoing shutdown.

In retail markets, bottled soybean oil is being sold at Tk 149 per litre, lentils between Tk 110 and Tk 120 per kg and sugar Tk 72 and Tk 78 per kg.

In the notification, the TCB said the OMS programme would continue till July 29, except for the Eid holidays.