The government's market intervention that began just before the advent of the Ramadan has failed to contain the price spiral of the essential commodities. The state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) was unable to arrest upward trend of prices.
With only a few outlets in the city and elsewhere in the country, the TCB failed to cater to the needs of an overwhelmingly large population. The government was also unable to intervene in the market through proper regulation of trading activities and stepping up market oversight in a sustained manner to keep prices within the capacity of the fixed- and low-income groups.
What is surprising is that the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of commerce expressed satisfaction with the kitchen market price situation although prices of many essential commodities have increased up to 100 per cent since the beginning of the Ramadan. The parliamentary panel at a recent meeting said that unlike in previous years, commodity prices had not gone up abnormally during the Ramadan this year. But the fact remains that the prices of most of the vegetables increased by 50 per cent to 100 per cent in the retail market in the city during the Ramadan.
The TCB opened sales on trucks at 25 spots in Dhaka from the first day of the Ramadan. At the TCB outlets, soyabean oil is being sold at Tk 106-Tk 107 per litre, sugar at Tk 39 per kg, lentil at Tk 65 per kg and gram at Tk 44 per kg and at Tk 70 per kg. Unlike previous years, prices of most of the essentials have marked a steep rise during this Ramadan. Prices of some commodities, which are in high demand during the Ramadan, almost doubled on an average. The ground reality could be much worse as the data available with the TCB generally do not incorporate prices of all commodities.
Prices going sky-high have strained the public life, with people of low-income group struggling to make their both ends meet and people of fixed-income group panting for breath. Studies suggest that people need to spend more than half of their income on food. The people of the low- and fixed-income groups have been the worst suffers in the Ramadan.
Experts say the government could have controlled the price hike of essentials had the TCB been active. But the organisation now appears to be a dead body. On many occasions, previous parliamentary standing committees blasted the TCB's 'inactivity' in checking the price hike of essentials despite having a staggering amount of fund. Committee members from both the ruling and opposition sides expressed concern over the price situation and accused the TCB of serving the interests of the so-called syndicates and cartels.
The last caretaker government wanted to turn the TCB into a public limited company for 'an effective market intervention to arrest the price spiral of essentials in the local market'. It was also eager to make the TCB an independent body so that it can take prompt decisions at any crisis moment.
At present the TCB has 42 bighas of land, four zonal offices, six warehouses across the country and Tk 1.0 billion fund with different banks and 235 employees, which are enough to run an independent company. Established in 1972, the TCB failed to efficiently handle the price situation, which the world experienced in the 2007-08 fiscal year.
In 2007-08, when fair-price outlets set up by the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) in the city gained a modest popularity, the TCB was supposed to play a leading role in providing essential commodities at fair prices to the citizens. But it remained conspicuously inactive. Hundreds of people, especially middle class, lower middle class and the poor rushed to the BDR outlets at that time.
With a pious objective to protect consumers' rights, maintain fair prices by ensuring a balanced supply of commodities for the consumers and prevent and deter hoarding by unscrupulous trading cartels, the TCB has deviated from its saviour role and reached such a state that even some commodities sold in the open market are sometimes priced lower than those of the TCB.
In fact, the TCB could not play its role against hoarding of essentials as politically influential traders with the connivance of corrupt TCB officials successfully turned TCB into an ineffective body. The organisation started to nose-dive after new recruitment at TCB was suspended in the '90s.
Irregularities in selling essentials through the TCB and under the Open Market Sale (OMS) programme have foiled the government's previous attempts to stop the skyrocketing of essential prices. A lot of allegations then came up against the TCB and the OMS dealers.
The main allegation against the TCB was that its trucks selling goods are rarely available to buyers, as they stay at one place for few hour only and also have no time schedule of arrival and departure. Other allegations include substandard quality of goods, manipulation in weight and insufficient amount of goods. There are scores of audit objections concerning the TCB which were also discussed in parliament earlier.
However, many believe that the state-run body could still deliver if the government took some pragmatic steps to reinvigorate its activities and make it fully functional.
szkhan@dhaka.net
Making TCB fully functional
Shahiduzzaman Khan | Published: July 27, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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