Sugar being sold at higher than govt rate

Although grocers started selling sugar at a rate higher than that fixed by the government in tune with demands made earlier by refiners and millers, the commerce minister yesterday said the price would be set after Eid-ul-Azha.

Earlier in May this year, the retail price of unpackaged sugar was fixed at Tk 120 and packaged one at Tk 125 per kilogramme (kg).

But consumers were having to buy the sweetener between Tk 120 and Tk 140 at retail per kilogram owing to inadequate supply in the market.

On June 19, refiners and millers proposed that the government increase the price by 20 per cent and wanted to bring that into effect from June 22 to prevent losses resulting from high import cost and price hikes of sugar in international markets.

And with the new price yet to be set, consumers were having to buy sugar at Tk 148 to Tk 150 per kg yesterday.

The Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission is working to adjust the prices as it went up in international markets, said Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi yesterday.

The minister also said he would ask the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to reduce the rate of import duty on raw sugar so the price falls in the local markets accordingly, according to a statement from the commerce ministry.

However, the minister did not specify when he would send the letter to the NBR.

Munshi also said the government has already reduced prices of edible oil in the local markets in tune with its decline in international markets.

Prices of the two cooking ingredients vary in local markets depending on associated fluctuations in international markets because currently over 90 per cent of the local demand is met through imports as local production is very low.

The minister was speaking with a group of journalists at his secretariat office in Dhaka after a seminar on the "present status and future prospect of Ayurvedic system of medicine in Bangladesh".

Many neighbouring countries have been earning a lot of foreign currency exporting Ayurvedic medicine and Bangladesh should also take this opportunity, said Munshi.

He urged private sector entrepreneurs to come forward to export more Ayurvedic medicine to earn foreign currency.