DCs asked to beef up pre-Ramadan market monitoring

The Cabinet Division has asked district-level deputy commissioners to strengthen market monitoring and ensure their efforts to contain essential commodity prices ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan.

"In an instruction issued on 12 March, the deputy commissioners were also urged to ensure strict enforcement of laws to prevent any kind of irregularity related to commodity trades," Cabinet Secretary Mahbub Hossain said while talking to reporters after a cabinet committee meeting at the Secretariat in the capital on Monday.

"The Prime Minister's Office, the Cabinet Division, the Ministry of Commerce and other government agencies are actively keeping an eye on commodity market situations. All-out efforts are in place to keep prices at an affordable level in the fasting month," he added.

Bangladesh usually sees abnormal hikes in the prices of daily items such as edible oil, sugar, flour, chickpeas, pulses, dates, green chillies, lemons, brinjals, eggs, fish and meat during Ramadan. In a recent trend, the prices were seen to have surged even before the holy month, which traders blamed on increased import costs and supply shortages.

The prices, however, fall slightly when the government strengthens market monitoring. Analysts say raising and cutting prices are just a market manipulating strategy of traders to make higher profits, where government efforts are little to curb the irregularities.

According to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, edible oil sold at 10% higher prices in Dhaka on Monday compared to a year-ago period. Similarly, sugar saw a hike of 50%, non-packed flour 32%, dates 20%, eggs 17%, chicken 50%, chickpeas 13% and pulses 4-8% in prices on the day.

Regarding recent price hikes, traders blame global hikes and the increased exchange rate of the dollar. The Tariff Commission, however, said the price hikes in Bangladesh are not proportionate to those.

Meanwhile, the central bank said Bangladesh has a considerable import of consumer goods. Hence, there is no scope for price hikes owing to a shortage in supply.