Mohammad Suman

There is a new problem in Bangladesh’s edible oil market but as always, the consumers end up being the sufferers.

Six months before the deadly fire at Sitakunda’s BM Container Depot on June 4, a team of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority visited the depot and found fire hazards like combustible materials kept near electronic machines and absence of a fire hydrant system.

In the last week of May, the Hathazari-based Al-Razi Chemical Complex was warned of the hazards of storing hydrogen peroxide in jerrycans. But the company was not stirred to action.

The government plans to extend VAT exemption and offer tax holiday to all export-oriented goods and services in order to create new export sectors, diversify goods and explore new markets.

The government yesterday increased the price of soybean oil by Tk 5 to Tk 7 per litre, dashing the hopes of the edible oil market in Bangladesh cooling off anytime soon.

The move aims at making ‘Made in Bangladesh’ a global brand.

Panic spread among officials at the Chattogram Port when smoke began billowing from an acid-loaded container on Tuesday, around three days after the BM container depot fire and explosion.

Mandatory safety measures like storing chemicals on a separate part of the premises with caution signs were not followed at BM Container Depot.

Even though prices of loose palm and soybean oil have dropped in wholesale markets, consumers are not being able to reap the benefits as retailers are still selling those at the government-fixed prices.

Powdered milk prices have increased by Tk 50 to Tk 80 per kilogramme (kg) as rising transportation charges and the growing value of US dollars pushed up costs in the international market.

On April 5, the revenue authorities held a draw of the lottery of sales receipts issued by the stores using electronic fiscal devices (EFDs).

The National Board of Revenue should accelerate the use of electronic fiscal devices (EFDs) and ramp up monitoring to eliminate non-compliance with a view to raising more value-added taxes using technologies, said former top taxmen and economists.

He was an 18-year-old singer-songwriter in the eighties.

Customs authorities are planning to auction off on June 23 a total of 108 cars, including ones of luxury brands BMW, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus, brought to the Chattogram port around a decade ago duty-free under a UN convention.

Consumers are already bearing the brunt of the high prices of edible oil, wheat and rice for the Russia-Ukraine war and unfavourable weather conditions on the domestic front.

Palm oil prices in domestic wholesale and retail markets have started cooling off after Indonesia announced that it would resume exports of the product.

More than 11 years ago, the government issued an order for the trade of essential commodities, aimed at controlling their prices and curbing price manipulation by unscrupulous businesses through hoarding and other unfair means.

Indonesia, the world’s biggest supplier of edible oils, has decided to lift the ban on palm oil exports, a development that is expected to bring much-needed relief to the consumers in Bangladesh struggling to afford the cooking oil because of skyrocketing prices.

Costs and deadlines of four ongoing projects to mitigate the waterlogging issue in Chattogram -- worth Tk 11,000 crore -- have been extended multiple times. However, the sufferings of the port city dwellers have increased with them.

After the new prices came into effect, edible oil companies started supplying bottled, loose soybean and palm oil through distributors from Saturday.