Govt sits with refiners today to fix edible oil prices
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Monira Munni
The government will sit today (Sunday) with the oil refiners to fix prices of pet bottled and brand edible oil to rein in the recent unusual hike of the essential item in the local market, officials said.
The price of the bottled oil increased by Tk 10-15 per litre in the local market.
Earlier the government fixed the price of a litre of soybean oil at Tk 91 and palm oil at Tk 82 at a meeting between the commerce minister and the edible oil refiners recently.
But a section of unscrupulous traders were selling loose soybean oil at Tk 102-106 and palm oil at Tk 90-96 per litre.
The move of the government to fix soybean oil price came amid sharp escalation of its price for the last few months, putting an extra financial burden on the people.
"We will see on what basis the refiners fix the price as the method is not correct," Gholam Hossain, secretary of Ministry of Commerce (MoC) told the FE.
Recent price hike of edible oil is not right, the MoC secretary said adding that we have already directed the refiners to come up with proposal of decreasing the pet bottled and brand edible oil price up to 50 per cent of the hike in the first phase.
"We will tell the refiners to lower the price at the second step," he added.
Meanwhile refiners said the recent price hike is the result of high international price, and brand item prices vary from company to company.
The government should fix the loose oil price, not the branded one, as the consumption of loose oil is 87 per cent while that of the branded item is only 17 per cent, a refiner said.
"On June 02 this year, the international price of crude edible oil was $ 785 while on December 02 the rate stood at $ 1172," he said.
Moreover we sold edible oil during the Ramadan at a low rate paying heed to the government's request though we were incurring loss at that time, he said adding "As we buy oil from the international market, we have to follow the market trend to sustain."
The government will sit today (Sunday) with the oil refiners to fix prices of pet bottled and brand edible oil to rein in the recent unusual hike of the essential item in the local market, officials said.
The price of the bottled oil increased by Tk 10-15 per litre in the local market.
Earlier the government fixed the price of a litre of soybean oil at Tk 91 and palm oil at Tk 82 at a meeting between the commerce minister and the edible oil refiners recently.
But a section of unscrupulous traders were selling loose soybean oil at Tk 102-106 and palm oil at Tk 90-96 per litre.
The move of the government to fix soybean oil price came amid sharp escalation of its price for the last few months, putting an extra financial burden on the people.
"We will see on what basis the refiners fix the price as the method is not correct," Gholam Hossain, secretary of Ministry of Commerce (MoC) told the FE.
Recent price hike of edible oil is not right, the MoC secretary said adding that we have already directed the refiners to come up with proposal of decreasing the pet bottled and brand edible oil price up to 50 per cent of the hike in the first phase.
"We will tell the refiners to lower the price at the second step," he added.
Meanwhile refiners said the recent price hike is the result of high international price, and brand item prices vary from company to company.
The government should fix the loose oil price, not the branded one, as the consumption of loose oil is 87 per cent while that of the branded item is only 17 per cent, a refiner said.
"On June 02 this year, the international price of crude edible oil was $ 785 while on December 02 the rate stood at $ 1172," he said.
Moreover we sold edible oil during the Ramadan at a low rate paying heed to the government's request though we were incurring loss at that time, he said adding "As we buy oil from the international market, we have to follow the market trend to sustain."