Govt to reset sugar, oil prices
The government will periodically reset the mill-gate, wholesale and retail prices of edible oil and sugar, said Commerce Secretary Ghulam Hussain yesterday.
The next rates will be fixed on Monday. The secretary however did not say whether the prices of those basic commodities will be revised up or down.
A price committee, headed by Bangladesh Tariff Commission Chairman Mozibur Rahman, is analysing different factors such as current prices, duties, price trends in international markets.
Hussain spoke to reporters at a briefing at his office after a meeting with importers and refiners of the two commodities.
The committee will also discuss progress on elimination of the age-old delivery order (DO) system in the marketing of sugar and edible oil as the government scrapped the system on June 21 by signing a law.
However, some businessmen are still trading under that system as the deals were signed before June 21, Hussain said.
“The sale of sugar and edible oil in the DO system is a punishable crime as the government banned it by making a law. If anybody follows it, he will be punished.”
“But we are considering some cases, as those were agreed upon before the law was put into place,” he said.
The secretary also said the price committee may extend the exemption of 5 percent value added tax (VAT) on edible oil and sugar. The tenure for the VAT exemption expired on August 31.
The government had exempted VAT on such basic products considering the prices, he said. The government levied 15 percent VAT on those products, Hussain added.
At present, stocks of edible oil stand at 1.5 lakh tonnes and sugar at five lakh tonnes. “We have enough stocks of both edible oil and sugar up to Eid-ul-Azha. So there will not be any crisis in the supply of those products,” he said.
Hussain blamed political strikes, poor weather conditions and the bad condition of roads for seasonal price hikes of sugar before the start of Ramadan.
“Moreover, retailers, especially small shop owners, did not follow the rates fixed by the government and made brisk business. Large shops and outlets however followed government rates,” he said.
The government on July 20 fixed the mill-gate price of sugar between Tk 58 and Tk 62 a kilogram, the wholesale price at Tk 63 and retail prices at Tk 65. The price of edible oil was set at Tk 109 a litre at the retail level.
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