Strengthening TCB
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Khalilur Rahman
Despite stern warnings issued by the government from time to time, prices of essentials, particularly flour, onion and edible oil, continue to maintain rising trend. The Financial Express in its issue of Saturday reported that even after the fixation of price of loose edible oil, the consumers are still forced to buy the item at higher prices. The Commerce Minister and the refiners of edible oil in a meeting held recently fixed the price of a litre of soybean oil at Taka 91 and palm oil at Taka 82. But the retailers in city markets were selling loose soybean oil between taka 100 and Taka 105 per litre and palm oil from Taka 92 to Taka 94 a litre on Friday. The Commerce Minister is due to sit with the oil refiners Sunday (today) to fix the price of branded edible oil. The FE also reported that five- litre containers of edible oil also registered a rise by Taka 10 to Taka 15 last week.
In the backdrop of price escalation of essentials, the government has decided to strengthen The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh(TCB) to break the evil nexus of syndication which controls market. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced that several steps have already been taken to reactive the TCB. She blamed the past BNP government for keeping the TCB inactive. We have already written in this column that the Prime Minister felt the urgent need of a tool at the disposal of the government to intervene in the market to face the monopoly of privet businesses.
We know that the TCB is now in a moribund state. With the help of TCB in its present form, it is not possible to face the most powerful syndicates now controlling essentials' market. Undoubtedly the Prime Minister is sincere in her assertion to revamp the TCB because as head of government she has to bear the responsibility of ensuring that the people get essentials at fair prices.
Now it is the turn of those who will implement the decision of the prime minister to be equally sincere. TCB sources say it is possible to strengthen TCB if there is political will on the part of the government. In this age of free market economy the state trading body like TCB faces difficulties in retaining its importance. In the absence of its counterpart in other countries from where the TCB wants to import essential commodities it has to negotiate with private businesses. As such it is required as per business deal that the import must be made within the stipulated time. But the TCB cannot do it as it has neither financial authority nor any decision-making capacity. For example, if the TCB wants to import edible oil, the exporter will set a deadline within which it has to bring the negotiated consignment. But TCB has to wait for the approval from the higher authorities and sanction of fund which consumes much time.
Another problem which confronts the TCB dealers is low quality of items supplied to them by the Corporation. A report published in a local daily says that all the thirteen dealers of TCB of Rajshahi who received their quotas of masur pulse from Rajshahi regional office are now in difficulties to sell the item because of its inferior quality. The dealers lifted masur pulse at a price of Taka 91 per kg from TCB godown. But the local traders are not buying the pulse supplied by the TCB at a price of more than Taka 66 per kg. The dealers complain that they were forced to accept low quality pulse because they were not allowed to draw their quotas of sugar and edible oil from the TCB stock. The TCB authority, dealers say, has made it compulsory that sugar and edible oil will not be distributed to those who refuse to draw pulse, the press report says. The newspaper quoted an official of TCB of Rajshahi region as saying that they had to buy the pulse at the instruction from the central office of the organization.
We urge the concerned authorities to remove internal irregularities before a meaningful reform is carried out to strengthen the state trading body.
(E-mail : khalilbdh@gmail.com)
Despite stern warnings issued by the government from time to time, prices of essentials, particularly flour, onion and edible oil, continue to maintain rising trend. The Financial Express in its issue of Saturday reported that even after the fixation of price of loose edible oil, the consumers are still forced to buy the item at higher prices. The Commerce Minister and the refiners of edible oil in a meeting held recently fixed the price of a litre of soybean oil at Taka 91 and palm oil at Taka 82. But the retailers in city markets were selling loose soybean oil between taka 100 and Taka 105 per litre and palm oil from Taka 92 to Taka 94 a litre on Friday. The Commerce Minister is due to sit with the oil refiners Sunday (today) to fix the price of branded edible oil. The FE also reported that five- litre containers of edible oil also registered a rise by Taka 10 to Taka 15 last week.
In the backdrop of price escalation of essentials, the government has decided to strengthen The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh(TCB) to break the evil nexus of syndication which controls market. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced that several steps have already been taken to reactive the TCB. She blamed the past BNP government for keeping the TCB inactive. We have already written in this column that the Prime Minister felt the urgent need of a tool at the disposal of the government to intervene in the market to face the monopoly of privet businesses.
We know that the TCB is now in a moribund state. With the help of TCB in its present form, it is not possible to face the most powerful syndicates now controlling essentials' market. Undoubtedly the Prime Minister is sincere in her assertion to revamp the TCB because as head of government she has to bear the responsibility of ensuring that the people get essentials at fair prices.
Now it is the turn of those who will implement the decision of the prime minister to be equally sincere. TCB sources say it is possible to strengthen TCB if there is political will on the part of the government. In this age of free market economy the state trading body like TCB faces difficulties in retaining its importance. In the absence of its counterpart in other countries from where the TCB wants to import essential commodities it has to negotiate with private businesses. As such it is required as per business deal that the import must be made within the stipulated time. But the TCB cannot do it as it has neither financial authority nor any decision-making capacity. For example, if the TCB wants to import edible oil, the exporter will set a deadline within which it has to bring the negotiated consignment. But TCB has to wait for the approval from the higher authorities and sanction of fund which consumes much time.
Another problem which confronts the TCB dealers is low quality of items supplied to them by the Corporation. A report published in a local daily says that all the thirteen dealers of TCB of Rajshahi who received their quotas of masur pulse from Rajshahi regional office are now in difficulties to sell the item because of its inferior quality. The dealers lifted masur pulse at a price of Taka 91 per kg from TCB godown. But the local traders are not buying the pulse supplied by the TCB at a price of more than Taka 66 per kg. The dealers complain that they were forced to accept low quality pulse because they were not allowed to draw their quotas of sugar and edible oil from the TCB stock. The TCB authority, dealers say, has made it compulsory that sugar and edible oil will not be distributed to those who refuse to draw pulse, the press report says. The newspaper quoted an official of TCB of Rajshahi region as saying that they had to buy the pulse at the instruction from the central office of the organization.
We urge the concerned authorities to remove internal irregularities before a meaningful reform is carried out to strengthen the state trading body.
(E-mail : khalilbdh@gmail.com)