Can BB help stop rice hoarders?

The price of different varieties of rice has recently increased by about 20-30 percent in the retail market. After the recent floods that badly affected crop production across the haor region, the government imported nearly 8.5 lakh metric tonnes of rice from India and Vietnam. But that was barely adequate, and had little impact on the price of rice. The problem was exacerbated because local dealers had hoarded a huge amount of rice causing an artificial crisis in the market.

The same thing also happened nine years ago, during the tenure of the last caretaker government. At that time, Bangladesh Bank (BB) had instructed all the banks to ask the hoarders to repay their loans within one month. As a result, the price of rice dropped within weeks. BB should follow the same technique to protect the interests of the consumers.

Md Ashraf Hossain, By email