If anomaly, dealers ‘to lose licence’

The government will cancel licence if it finds involvement of any dealer in any irregularity in selling essential items allocated by the state-owned trading agency, officials said.
To this effect, the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) has asked its regional and camp offices to take action for breaching terms of the contracts signed with the entity.
In its directive, the TCB warned of cancelling dealership licence if any report is run in print, electronic and online media about any anomaly in selling its goods.
Licence will also be revoked if deputy commissioners, UNO, Consumers Rights Protection Department, police, RAB, local administration and any other authorities complain against any dealer for the same reason.
Currently, there are eight regional and four camp offices of the corporation across the country.
An estimated 2,861 dealers have been listed with the trading corporation across the country.
A process is well under way to appoint new dealerships for selling more TCB goods among consumers, according to an official document.
According to the state agency, it has cancelled licences of more than 665 dealers for various reasons.
Of them, some dealers have deactivated their licences willingly while some others did so before contesting elections, a high official of the TCB said.
Licences of others have been suspended based on reports of the DCs concerned, he said, adding that some dealers also had their licences cancelled as they did not have shops.
The TCB sells sugar, soya bean oil, lentil, gram and date through dealers at subsidised rates as part of its intervention into the market.
The corporation will cancel licences for the sake of consumers if it finds any dealers' complicity in any irregularity, said the official.
The TCB counts substantial financial losses every year and gets subsidy from the government, a commerce ministry official said.
It launched open market sale (OMS) of key essential items from April 01 to keep prices within the purchasing power of the public ahead of Ramadan.
It is selling goods through 350 trucks-50 in Dhaka, 16 in Chattogram, 10 each in other divisional cities and four in each district town.
The TCB are currently selling sugar, soya bean oil and red lentil through trucks.
The OMS programme will continue across the country until May 20, excepting Fridays.
Commerce minister Tipu Munshi has warned of taking stricter steps against any dealer involved in any irregularity in selling essential items, according to a press statement of the ministry.
The authorities concerned have found allegations of irregularities in selling key essential items in different parts of the country.
Monitoring has been strengthened, the statement said, adding that the TCB has taken legal steps against the manipulators as per the instructions of the minister.
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