We cannot spend a single day without using cooking oil. However, the recent hike in the prices of edible oil has added intolerable woes to the consumers, already struggling to make ends meet on their limited incomes. The government has fixed the price of a litre of bottled soybean oil at Tk 198, a 23.75 per cent hike from Tk 160 per litre. This is the sharpest increase in the soybean oil price in Bangladesh. What is more worrying for all of us is that loose soybean oil is being sold for more than Tk 200 in the retail shops.
Since Bangladesh's edible oil industry has been continuing to depend heavily on imported oil, the rise in prices can easily be understood. It is unfortunate to observe that the government waiver of 15 per cent value-added tax (VAT) at the production stage and 5 per cent at the retail level, and another 10 per cent VAT cut at the import stage, has had little effect in stabilising prices of edible oil. We urge the authorities concerned to look into the matter sincerely and bring the price within the purchasing power of common people as soon as possible.
Mahmudul Haq Hasan,
Dhaka College, Dhaka,
mahmuddadc@gmail.com