The government on Saturday ordered mill owners to complete recruitment of sugar and edible oil dealers before the Ramadan, and refrain from hiking the prices of the essential commodities during the Muslims' month of fasting.
Commerce minister Faruk Khan, at a meeting with business leaders including sugar and edible oil refiners, said that there was sufficient stock of sugar and edible oil in the country, moreover letters of credit have been opened for import of a large quantity of these items.
'So there is no reason for instability in the prices of these two commodities during the Ramadan. There will be no gap between the demand and the supply of these products if the appointment of dealers is done properly,' he said.
Although business leaders agreed that there was sufficient stock, they cautioned the government that they could not be held responsible if the prices of sugar and edible oil rose because of agitation programmes like hartal.
The Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry's president AK Azad, commerce secretary Ghulam Hossain and leader of sugar and edible oil refiners Fazlur Rahman were present at the meeting, along with others.
Faruk told reporters after the meeting that the refiners had so far appointed 7,061 dealers after the delivery order system was scrapped last month. 'Many of the refiners are yet to appoint dealers, and will have to do so as soon as possible,' he said.
Urging opposition parties not to enforce hartal, Faruk said that some quarters increase the prices of commodities on the excuse of hartal or bad weather.
Ghulam said that the total stock of sugar would reach around 3.75 lakh tonnes during Ramadan against the demand for 2.75 lakh tonnes, while the amount of edible oil would be 4.68 lakh tonnes against the demand for 2.5 lakh tones.
AK Azad said that a huge amount of commodities were stuck at the seaports because of the hartal.
He said that businessmen should not be held responsible if the prices shot up due to political movements.
Source : New Age
