Retail prices of loose soybean oil revised downward

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FE Report
The government Sunday at a marathon meeting with refiners revised the retail prices of loose soybean oil downward by Tk 5.0 per litre.
According to the decision, the retail selling price of loose soybean oil has been re-fixed at Tk 86 per litre for Dhaka and Tk 84 per litre for Chittagong.
The meeting held at the office of the commerce minister in city also decided the mill-gate prices of loose soybean oil for Dhaka and Chittagong at Tk 83 and Tk 81 per litre respectively.
Earlier at a meeting with the edible oil refiners on November 29 the government had fixed the prices of loose soybean oil and palm oil at Tk 91 and Tk 82 per litre respectively.
But Sunday's meeting has fixed the price of loose soybean oil and it did not decide the price of palm oil. It will be revised later on.
The prices of bottled soybean oil will be determined by adding 15 per cent of the current prices of loose soybean oil.
The prices of lose soybean oil rose 6.38 per cent while palm oil prices increased 2.96 per cent during the last one year. The soybean oil and palm oil prices shot up 23.46 per cent and 42.62 per cent respectively during the last one year, according to daily market report prepared by the state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
"We minutely and extensively discussed the international price situation of soybean oil with the stakeholders. We fixed the price keeping conformity with the international market price of soybean oil," Commerce Minister Muhammad Faruk Khan told the media after the meeting.
He said that a seven-member committee was also formed Sunday with the responsibility to submit report on the price situation of soybean oil in the international market within the next fifteen days.
Tariff Commission Chairman Md Mojibur Rahman will be chairman of the committee. There will be representatives from the ministry of commerce, FBCCI, ICMA and edible oil refiners.
The commerce minister said the price of soybean oil may be revised every month following the committee's report prepared on the basis of international market price.
Meanwhile, even after the fixation of soybean oil price a section of dishonest businessmen at city's different kitchen markets were still selling a kg of loose soybean oil between Tk 100 and Tk 104 and palm oil at Tk 90-Tk 92 Sunday forcing consumers to pay extra money.
Md Khalilur Rahman, chairman, TCB, AK Azad, president, FBCCI, Mostafa Kamal, chairman, Meghna Group, Saiful Alam, chairman, S Alam Group, Abul Kalam, chairman, Tk Group and Shahabuddin Alam, chairman, SA Group , among others, were present in the meeting.