The government and traders will jointly monitor the prices of essentials during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan, commerce minister Tofail Ahmed said Monday.
The decision was taken at a meeting between the commerce ministry and businessman aiming to maintain smooth supply of essential items to the market and control their prices during the Ramadan.
Chairman of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) Brigadier General Sarwar Jahan Talukdar, ndc, psc, ATM Mortuza Reza Chowdhury (ndc), Additional Secretary, MoC, Amitab Chacrabarti, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce,, Monoj Kumar Roy, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, President, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI), Mustafa Kamal, Chairman of Meghna Group, Fazlur Rahman, Chairman, City Group and other business representatives were present at the meeting held at the commerce ministry.
sssMahbub Ahmed, commerce secretary, moderated the meeting.
Tofail Ahmed said the government and traders will jointly monitor the prices and supply of atta, flour edible oil, sugar, gram and pulses during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan. "We will co-operate with the traders and the traders will also co-operate with us to keep the market stable," the commerce minister said.
The traders, however, assured the meeting of keeping the prices and supply of essential commodities stable during the fasting month, the minister said.
At the meeting commerce minister said the government will strictly monitor the market so that middlemen cannot create any artificial crisis in the market during Ramadan.
Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, President, FBCCI said, "We will sit with the commerce minister if any problem is created about prices and supply of essential commodities during the holy month.
He urged the traders to do business not only for profit but for the sake of humanity. I believe that businessmen will not disappoint the government in this regard.
The government has decided to build stocks of essentials including edible oil and sugar to keep prices of essentials stable in the upcoming Ramadan, commerce minister Tofail Ahmed told the meeting.
The traders, Bangladesh Bank, National Security Intelligence (NSI) and TCB men informed the commerce minister that there will be no disruption in supply chain of atta, flour, edible oil, sugar, gram and pulses during the upcoming Ramadan.
The government will also sit with the retailers and wholesalers of the country to discuss the overall price situation, demand and supply in the international and local market, a high official of the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) said.
