Lower-middle class suffer immensely

Staff Correspondent:

Although, the prices have been increased according to the proposal of the mill owners, most of the essential commodities especially Soybean oil and sugar have been disappeared from the market on the plea of supply chain disruption.

As a result, poor and middle class people are facing immense sufferings. Many can’t purchase those goods even after spending extra money due to the tricks of the traders, they complained.

Some products were not found as per demand in the market of the capital yesterday. Even if it is available in some stores, consumers were forced to pay additional money.

Retailers said, the company’s sales representatives have taken demand (orders) at the new price, but have not yet delivered the oil-sugar. So the crisis is not over. And the mill owners said that, the products have already been delivered to the dealers. The market will return to normal shortly.

During a visit to different markets in the capital, this correspondent found that, none of the shops have two, three or five liter bottle of soybean oil.

Consumers were forced to purchase loose oil from different markets. Many retailers were seen selling open soybean oil. In this case, instead of fixed price at Tk 172, Tk 180 to Tk 200 were realized by the sellers.

Some businessmen complained that, many are opening bottle mouths and selling oil loosely with higher prices taking advantage of the instability and crisis in the market. This has led to a shortage of bottled soybean oil. The complaint is the same for packaged sugar. Producers announced to increase the price of edible oil and sugar last Thursday. In the new prices, the price of a 1-liter bottle of soybean oil has been increased from Tk 178 to Tk 190, a 5-liter bottle has been increased from Tk 880 to Tk 925 and the price of open soybean oil has been fixed at Tk 172 instead of Tk 158.

Apart from this, the new price of open palm oil is Tk 121 per liter. And the price of packaged sugar has increased by Tk 13 to Tk 108 per kg. The government marketing agency Trading Corporation of Bangladesh’s (TCB) daily market report revealed that soybeans and sugar were being sold at prices higher than the prescribed prices.

According to the company’s data, open soybean oil was sold at Tk 180 to Tk 185 per liter in the capital yesterday, which was Tk 170 to Tk 175 a day ago. However, it was found that, soybean oil was sold at a maximum price of Tk 200 per liter in the market. In some shops, a 1-liter bottle with the previous price of Tk 178 was seen, but the traders sold it at Tk 185 to Tk 190.

Apart from this, although TCB gave the information of sale at Tk 880 to Tk 925, 1, 2, 3 or 5-liter bottle of soybean oil were not found in the market.

Similarly, packets of sugar were not available even with increased price. Buyers are forced to buy open sugar at Tk 115 to Tk 120 per kg.

Several officials of the manufacturing plant said that, they are preparing to supply the products after fixing the new price. Supply of oil, sugar has started after price implementation at somewhere. At someplace, the products have already delivered to dealers. They expect the supply of products to the market to be normal by two or three days.

Elites have urged the authorities concerned to beef up the surveillance to keep the market price stable for the sake of poor and middle class people.