Says DG of Directorate of National Consumers' Right Protection
The price of potato went up further after the government on Thursday announced a price cap for the tuber and began market drives to check the soaring price of the tuber.
If wholesalers do not sell potatoes at Tk 27 a kg, the new price cap, the government will sell them, said AHM Shafikuzzaman, director general of the national consumer rights protection directorate, yesterday.
DG of national consumer rights protection directorate says
The commerce ministry’s price cap on onions, potatoes, and eggs barely made an impact on the runaway prices as shopkeepers in the capital have not complied with the order.
Opposition MPs came down hard on Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi yesterday for what they said was his failure to control the prices of essentials and take action against the market syndicates.
In a first, the government yesterday fixed the prices of eggs, onions and potatoes in its bid to contain the runaway food inflation, which hit a 12-year-high last month.
Refiners in Bangladesh today cut the price of soybean oil by Tk 5 and palm oil by Tk 4 a litre after edible oil prices declined in the international market.
The commerce minister’s recent admission that stern measures against market manipulators could create a sudden crisis has exposed the helplessness and lack of political will of the government, said three top economists and a consumers' body.
Though the people are reeling from the price hike of essentials, the government agencies concerned could not reign in the prices ahead of the Eid, said Consumers Association of Bangladesh.
Hours after a meeting with the commerce ministry, Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners’ and Vanaspati Manufacturers’ Association yesterday reduced the price of soybean oil by Tk 10 per litre.
State-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh will start selling sugar from today to the family card holders for Tk 70 a kg, a rise by 16 percent or Tk 10 from the previous price.
State Minister for Industries Kamal Ahmed Majumder yesterday said ministers concerned should quit if they can’t break up syndicates controlling the economy and essentials’ market.
The government on Monday approved the refiners’ proposal for rising the retail price of sugar by Tk 16 a kg in accordance with the price hike in the international market.
When people are already struggling to cope with high prices of daily essentials, a fresh hike in the prices of soybean oil, sugar, onions, and potatoes has dealt them a further blow.
Faruk Hossain, a Begunbari resident, went to the capital’s Karwan Bazar yesterday for his monthly grocery shopping with the hope of buying all items spending the same amount of money he spent last month.
Within two weeks, the price of sugar increased by Tk 20 per kg at retail.