Essentials
TCB reports price spiral, ministries see media hype
Staff Correspondent
When a government agency reports that essential prices shot up substantially in a short span of time, an inter-ministerial meeting yesterday observed the price situation is not as 'exorbitant as reflected in the media'. According to a report by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, price of fine rice rose by 17.5 percent, medium quality rice by 17.65 percent and coarse rice by 18.97 percent in one year. Flour price shot up by 12.12 percent, garlic price 58.33 percent, sugar price 18.33 percent, milk vita price 14.12 percent, beef 10.52 percent, hilsa 18.75 percent and ruhi 8.33 percent in during the period, the TCB report mentioned. However, the meeting to review prices of essentials, chaired by Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, observed that although rice price is on the rise, prices of other essentials are not as high as reported by the media. The TCB report also showed that prices of some essentials have gone up substantially in last one month alone. According to the report, prices of fine rice increased by 6.82 percent, lentil 7.95 percent, onion 14.28 percent, garlic 13.1 percent and broiler 14.81 percent in during the last month. The TCB prepared the report by comparing yesterday's essentials' prices with those of a week, a month and a year ago. Advisor to the commerce ministry Md Barkat Ullah Bulu, Chairman of the National Board of Revenue Khairuzzaman Chowdhury, secretaries of the commerce, food and agriculture ministries, representatives from the prime minister's office, finance, home and communications ministries, and law enforcing agencies attended the meeting. "Rice supply in the market is not at the expected level despite a bumper harvest," Altaf told newsmen after the meeting at the ministry's conference room. The meeting blamed hoarding by millers for the rice price hike. The farmers also stocked up rice apprehending floods in the coming weeks, he said. Transport cost hike because of fuel price increase also resulted in the market heat up, the meeting observed, and extortion and prolonged rain have only aggravated the situation. The meeting proposed open market sale of rice to ease prices and duty cut on some essential items such as soybean oil, sugar and gram well ahead of Ramadan to avoid an 'embarrassing' situation. A national taskforce on essential price will sit on July 6 to further review the price situation.
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