In the wake of reckless price hike, the Interim Government on Monday formed a special task force at the district level to oversee the market situation and supply chains of daily essentials.
The special task force has been formed as per the decision of the Ministry of Commerce.
According to the Ministry of Commerce, the ten-member task force will be headed by an additional deputy commissioner of a district as its convener. The assistant director of the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection will act as its member secretary.
The eight other members will include the additional superintendent of police, the district food controller, the district animal resources officer, the district fisheries officer, the agricultural marketing officer, a representative of the Consumer Association of Bangladesh, and two student representatives.
The ministry notification, signed by Senior Assistant Secretary Md Mehedi Hasan, gave the work outline for the special task force, saying it will regularly visit markets, wholesale markets, godowns, and other parts of the supply chain.
The task force will also ensure that the price difference between production, wholesale, and consumer levels remains minimal, said the notification.
Earlier on Monday Asif Mahmud, Youth and Sports Adviser, on his verified Facebook page said the interim government was set to form a task force to monitor the market to reign in the soaring prices of daily essentials.
"Even after making many products duty-free, there was no impact on the market due to the misdoings of syndicates. The process of forming a task force to monitor the market is underway," he wrote.
The decision came as the prices of daily essentials including rice, eggs, broiler chicken, soybean oil, palm oil, sugar and vegetables have increased significantly.
It should be mentioned that the prices of daily essentials including rice, eggs, broiler chicken, soybean oil, palm oil, sugar and vegetables have increased significantly. The government on September 15 fixed the prices of egg and chicken at production, wholesale and retail levels to control the market.
On September 5, it also withdrew the tax on importing onion to ease high market prices and reduced the duties on imported potatoes and pesticides.
Many allege that steps taken by the interim government to tame the price hike of essential items has fallen flat as a section of traders are busy making fast buck, not giving a damn about the consumers’ interest.
Syndicate continues to line their pocket by selling eggs and chickens at high rates, defying the prices fixed by the government.
Market insiders say that the syndicate pockets about Tk 10 crore per day by selling eggs and chicken.
The price of each egg was Tk 10.58 at production level, Tk 11.01 at wholesale level and Tk 11.87 at retail level while broiler chicken price was set at Tk 168.91 at production level, wholesale level at Tk 172.61 and consumer level at Tk 179.59.
Egg market insiders say that the country has a demand for four crore eggs every day. Cashing in on the demand, the vested quarter pockets about 6.5 crore per day by selling eggs at higher rates.
The price of sonali chicken price was fixed at Tk 260.78 at production level, Tk 264.57 at wholesale and Tk 269.64 at consumer level.
Against the backdrop, a dozen of egg was being sold at Tk 165 while varieties of broiler and sonali chicken sold at Tk 190 and Tk 280 per kg respectively.
Poultry traders say that the country has a demand for 3,500 tonnes of chicken per day.
About Tk 4 crore is being taken away every day by selling chickens, they claim.
