Govt fixes prices of 6 essential commodities

The government on Monday fixed the prices of six essential food items to rein in the soaring prices of essential commodities hugely consumed in the holy month of Ramadan.

The Department of Agricultural Marketing in a press release on Monday said that they would fix prices of sugar, edible oil, dates, onion, chickpeas and lentil and organisations under the commerce ministry would ensure implementation of the decision.

The department said that it had fixed the prices considering production, import and import cost of the commodities after reviewing their demand in local and international markets.

As per the newly fixed price, chickpeas would be sold at Tk 63 to Tk 67 per kg in retail markets, onion at Tk 40 per kg, one litre bottle of edible oil at Tk 139, five litre bottle of edible oil at Tk 660, coarse lentils at Tk 67 to Tk 69, fine lentils at TK 97 to Tk 103 and sugar at Tk 67 to Tk 68 per kg.

Average quality of dates would be sold at Tk 80 to Tk 100 per kg and medium quality of dates at Tk 200 to Tk 250.

Department Agricultural Marketing directorate general Md Yousuf said that they had fixed the price as per law of agricultural marketing and the government agencies would ensure its implementation.

"The Ministry of Commerce has formed a six-member committee to monitor and control the market during Ramadan and there will be 28 monitoring teams in Dhaka," he said.

There are demands for 60 million tonnes of chickpeas, three lakh tonnes of onions, 80,000 tonnes of lentil, 1,36,000 tonnes of sugar and 50,000 tonnes of dates in the retail markets during Ramadan, the department's data shows.