No excuse for Ramadan price hikes

Prices of essential commodities are expected to remain stable this Ramadan, and could even be lower than last year, thanks to higher supply and stability in domestic markets, Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin said yesterday.

Imports of essential commodities this year were on average 40 percent higher than last year, the adviser said at a press conference, citing Bangladesh Bank data on imports of widely consumed goods such as rice, wheat, edible oil, sugar, lentils, onion, garlic, grams, and dates.

He also mentioned government efforts to diversify the supply of edible oil, including the provision of 500,000 tonnes of rice bran oil sourced domestically, which is expected to positively affect local prices.

Other factors supporting price stability include improved gas supply for manufacturing units, a stable exchange rate, and healthy availability of US dollars in banking channels, he added.  “Traders will have no excuse to increase commodity prices.”

The adviser said on top of these, the commerce ministry will continue to monitor the market alongside the Directorate of National Consumers’ Right Protection during Ramadan to prevent price manipulation.

Addressing a range of economic issues, the adviser also criticised the Sheikh Hasina-led government’s spending practices.

He noted that during her rule from 2008, the country’s foreign debt rose from Tk 2.20 lakh crore to over Tk 23 lakh crore at present. The taka saw a 46 percent devaluation over the last few years against the US dollar.

Due to the devaluation of the local currency, costly projects became even costlier, he noted. For instance, the project cost of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant went up by Tk 26,000 crore.

The adviser said huge money was spent on implementing the projects, which contributed to high expenditure without generating expected returns. “At one stage, Sheikh Hasina’s government went to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and borrowed more than $4.0 billion to meet the expenditure.”

He said a lot of different projects such as Padma Multipurpose Bridge, Payra Port and many more unjustified projects were taken by Hasina which eventually impacted the overall economy and escalated prices of the essential commodities in the local markets.

“For instance, the Padma Bridge was projected to generate Tk 1,400 crore in tolls and boost GDP by 2 percent, but only Tk 26 crore was collected in a year, and GDP growth did not increase as anticipated,” he said.

He added that money spent on unnecessary projects could have instead been invested in irrigation or fertiliser, boosting crop productivity, competitiveness, and lowering commodity prices.

Last week, the adviser claimed that the price of rice has increased by Tk 20 per kilogramme as a result of the repayment cost of the Padma Bridge.

The adviser noted that the current government has cancelled several non-essential projects to save funds. “Projects with only 5 to 10 percent expenditure can be cancelled easily, but those with 80 percent allocation spent are much harder to stop,” he said.