Bangladesh News

Traders of kitchen markets in the capital yesterday assured that prices of essentials would not increase further during Ramadan.

The assurance came at a meeting with the joint forces at the BDR headquarters.

Meantime, the government monitoring committee on curbing price hike decided to ask the communications ministry to exempt essential goods carrying trucks from paying tolls at Jamuna Bridge.

The meeting between traders and the joint forces decided that from now on association leaders will put up price charts of essentials at kitchen markets every day, and retailers will be bound to sell goods at these prices.

Presidents and general secretaries of different wholesale and retail kitchen market associations attended the meeting chaired by Col Abdul Halim, chief coordinator of Trade and Commerce Monitoring Cell (TCMC), BDR.

The meeting also decided to fix the commission of agents (middlemen between wholesalers and retailers).

Proper action would be taken if any traders are found involved in manipulation of market prices, the meeting was told.

Meanwhile, the joint forces have already opened monitoring cells at five wholesale markets at Karwan Bazar, Shyampur, Jatrabari, Mirpur and Tongi. Wholesalers will have to inform the joint forces about their daily sale of goods.

An army major is heading each monitoring cell, and any customer can make complaints there.

Traders body leaders present at yesterday’s meeting urged that no trader should be harassed unnecessarily.

Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) dealers are selling soybean and lentil in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajsahi. This will continue during Ramadan

INTER-MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE
As part of the government’s effort to curb spiraling prices of essentials the inter-ministerial monitoring committee on the matter yesterday decided to ask the communications ministry to exempt essential goods carrying trucks from paying tolls at Jamuna Multi-purpose Bridge.

The decision was taken yesterday at a routine meeting of the committee held at the secretariat of the commerce ministry with its chairman, Additional Commerce Secretary Golam Mostakim, in the chair.

“If the trucks are exempted from paying tolls it will be an incentive to the essential goods traders for curbing exorbitant prices,” Mostakim said.

The committee requested the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) to submit production and demand estimates of essentials for 2007-’08 fiscal in the next meeting.

“The government may take policy decisions for bringing equilibrium to the supply-demand situation of essentials if it has in hands the projections of production and demand in advance,” Mostakim said.

He told journalists after the meeting that the government will hold a high level meeting with the businessmen of Chittagong on September 25 to restore confidence among them.

Apart from the commerce ministry initiative the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), and the Department of Fisheries are also continuing to operate their fair-price outlets across the country getting positive public response.

The chairman of the committee said BDR is operating 270 fair-price outlets across the country, 100 of which are in the capital.

TCB is operating 45 stationary outlets and 15 mobile trucks in the city.

Mostakim said TCB has in its stock 886 tons of sugar, 252 tons of lentil, and 466 tons of edible oil for sale.

Quoting from the daily price list of essential goods of TCB the committee chairman said prices of most of the essential goods remain steady in the first week of Ramadan.

Representatives of different ministries and departments also attended the meeting.