Tariff commission to sit soon for readjusting edible oil price: Minister

Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said on Thursday that Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission will soon decide whether the proposal of Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners & Vanaspati Manufacturers Association to increase edible oil price by Tk 20 a liter is justified or not.

“Price of edible oil has come down in global market. But Dollar rate is high in our country and for this reason we are not getting the benefit which we were supposed to get due to fall in oil price. However, the Tariff Commission will examine the matter,” he said.

Tipu said this after attending the cabinet meeting at the secretariat.

Replying to a question, the Minister said that it’s not the Commerce Ministry’s job to monitor price hike of essentials by traders following the fuel price hike.

“Fuel prices have been raised after adjusting with prices in the neighboring countries. If the current diesel price is taken into consideration, it’ll be found that the government is still incurring a loss of Tk 8 per liter,” said the Minister.

The association proposed increasing edible oil price in line with rapid increase in dollar price.

If the association’s demands are met, price of edible oil will increase from Tk 185 to Tk 205 per liter, while price of non-bottled Soybean oil will shot up to Tk 180 from Tk 166 a liter and a five liter bottle will be sold for Tk 960, up Tk 50 than the current rate.