Essential food prices to show daily on commerce ministry website

The commerce ministry will start sharing retail and wholesale prices of essential food commodities prevailing in markets on its website every day from the first week of March for the benefit of consumers.

The relevant ministries such as that of food, agricultural, fisheries and livestock will first collect the prices from the markets and forward it to the commerce ministry.

The commerce ministry will "review" the prices and any deemed to be too high will be revised and the new price posted on the website, said a senior commerce ministry official seeking anonymity.

Under the control of essential commodities act, the commerce ministry has the authority to "control the prices" of essential commodities if it deems that the prices are too high, said the official.

The law, formulated around 80 years ago, enlists 34 types of products as essential commodities, including "foodstuffs" such as "edible oilseeds and oils".

Around a decade ago the commerce ministry had announced 17 food items as essential commodities -- onion, garlic, lentil, gram, red chilli, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, ginger, turmeric, bay leaves, soybean oil, palm oil, sugar and salt.

The official shared the information after a task force meeting of the commerce ministry was held at the ministry in Dhaka yesterday chaired by State Minister for Commerce Ahsanul Islam Titu.

Responding to a query from The Daily Star, Senior Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh said the commerce ministry has not taken any decision to fix the prices of the 17 essential commodities.