Faruk asks TCB to follow global prices

Commerce Minister Faruk Khan yesterday gave directives to the state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) officials to purchase the basic commodities in view of the international markets.
He suggested the TCB purchase the commodities when the prices of those products go down during the harvesting period in the international market, so that those could be sold at lower prices in the local markets.
Khan also asked the TCB to upgrade its capacity so that it can compete with the local businessmen during any crisis.
Moreover, the TCB should preserve the commodities in the warehouses so that those are not rotten and the agency should enhance its standard of services to the people, the minister said at a meeting with the regional chiefs of the TCB at its headquarters in Dhaka.
He also instructed the TCB officials not to harass the dealers during the release of goods from the TCB warehouses and to continuously monitor whether the dealers are taking the goods at the right time.
The agency has already appointed 2,905 dealers across the country instead of its previous 140 dealers to keep the prices of basic commodities at a tolerable level, the minister said.
In the meeting it was decided that the TCB will scrap the dealership licences of the dealers who failed to receive the goods from the warehouses previously, because a section of people are trying to create an artificial crisis of commodities by hoarding the items during the time of crisis.
“At present the government has six months' stock of different commodities for keeping the market stable,” the minister said.
From now, the TCB will increase the supply of goods to the dealers and it will make two special allocations of commodities for the dealers during the time of Ramadan, Durga Puja and Eid-ul-Azha, he said.
The government has already allocated Tk1,000 crore for the TCB at lower interest rate for purchasing commodities, while the government had subsidised Tk69 crore last year for the agency.