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High edible oil prices hiked again

Refiners raise rate by Tk 7 per litre, effective from today


FE REPORT | October 20, 2021 00:00:00


Amid soaring prices of many necessaries hitting consumers hard, now already-high prices of edible oils are hiked by Tk 7.00 per litre from today (Wednesday).

Commoners and consumer-rights campaigners decry that the fresh oil-price raise would further exacerbate woes consumers, particularly people of low-and limited-income groups.

Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners and Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (BVORVMA) fixed the maximum retail price (MRP) of soybean oil through discussion with the commerce ministry and Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) recently. And the formal announcement came Tuesday.

The price-hike move has been made following an earlier proposal of the BVORVMA taking current upward price trends of edible oils on the international market into consideration.

The oil refiners increased the MRP of per-liter bottled soybean oil to Tk 160 from Tk 153, according to a BVORVMA press release issued Tuesday.

They also increased the prices of a five-litre can of soybean oil to Tk 760.

Besides, the price of loose soybean oil has increased to Tk 136 while the MRP of super palm oil has been proposed to increase to Tk 118.

The new rates will be effective from Wednesday, a commerce ministry source said.

In September last, the price of bottled soybean oil was fixed at Tk 153 per litre while a five-litre jar Tk 728.

Besides, the price of loose soybean oil was fixed at Tk 129 per litre. The MRP of super palm oil was Tk 116 a litre in September 2021.

However, "the new rates will not be applicable to old stocks of soybean oil at the distributors and retailers' levels", according to the press release.

Earlier on May 26, the price of soybean oil was increased by Tk 9 per litre in one leap. "Hardship of common consumers is going to be intensified further due to the raise in prices of soybean oil, a widely consumed cooking edible," experts say on a note of resentment.

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