Chittagong chamber seeks govt steps to check Ramadan price

Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) has urged the government to curb hoarding in an effort to control the prices of essentials during Ramadan.
In a faxed message to Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Tuesday, CCCI President MA Latif put forward a set of recommendations to assess the volume of hoarded goods and sought his intervention in Ramadan prices.
The chamber suggested a regular quantitative assessment of the imported essentials and locally produced consumables and stocks.
It said this move would check hoarding and artificial crises created by some dishonest importers and producers.
The first recommendation was to issue directives to banks asking them to send in reports informing the finance ministry of the quantity and value of goods in line with the letters of credit.
The second recommendation was for providing the ministry with the payable VAT figures on products and quantities of goods produced and held in stock at the production units and directing importers to inform the ministry of the total quantities of import and the stocks of imports after sale.
In the third recommendation, CCCI said the government should open a probe into why some essential items jumped on the local market when the international market was unchanged.
"Even if there was any price hike on the international market, it should take at least two months to affect the local market," said the CCCI chief.