OMS fails to slash rice prices in market

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FE Report
The government's Open Market Sale (OMS) progamme has failed to make any positive impact, as the prices of rice still remain unchanged in the market.
The OMS centres across the capital have seen poor response so far, and no impact of the programme has been found in the retail and wholesale markets.
The government started countrywide OMS programme on October 6 to control rice price hike. Under the programme per kg rice is selling at Tk 24 at the OMS centres, and one person can buy five kgs of rice at a time. However, most of the people, except some hardcore poor, are not interested to buy the OMS rice due to its 'poor' quality.
Talking to the FE, retailers at Karwan Bazar, New Market, Hatirpul and Palashi said there is no impact of the OMS programme in the markets, as rice prices still remain unchanged.
"Now per kg coarse rice is selling at Tk 33-34 at retail level, which was the same a week ago," they said.
Prices of fine varieties of rice - Miniket and Najir Shail - are selling at Tk 38-46 in retail markets, unchanged from their previous week prices, they added.
Medium quality rice varieties like Paizam and Lata are selling at Tk 34-40, and the coarse variety Swarna at Tk 33-36 at retail level.
Market sources said coarse rice was selling at Tk 3,200 per quintal at the wholesale markets Friday, and it was the same a week ago. Besides, Miniket and Najir Shail were selling at Tk 3,700 to Tk 3,900 per quintal respectively.