Govt plans to build buffer stock of essentials to check price spiral

Rezaul Karim | Published: September 08, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The government plans to import or buy locally 0.1 million tonnes of essential items to face any crisis or price spiral in future, officials said.
A buffer stock of essentials will be built for checking any future shortage of the kitchen items that will be collected through the state- run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), they said.
The items are sugar, edible oil, onion, lentils, gram, dates, spices, ginger and garlic.
The TCB has sought Tk 7.57 billion as counter guarantee for the current fiscal year(FY) 2014-15 from the ministry of commerce (MoC) to import or locally buy essential goods to help keep commodity market stable in near future, especially, during the next holy Ramadan, sources said.
The MoC sent a letter to the ministry of finance (MoF) on behalf of the TCB, seeking the counter guarantee of Tk 7.57 billion. In the letter the MoC has requested to take necessary steps in this connection, they said.
"So far I know, there is no decision yet in this regard. The proposal has been sent to the MoF from the MoC, TCB spokesman Md Humayun Kabir told the FE Sunday.
The TCB sells essential commodities at subsidised rates to keep the commodities market stable. Since it has no cash in hand, the TCB takes loan against Trust Receipts (LTR) from scheduled commercial banks at 12 to 16 per cent rate of interest to import and buy commodities, the TCB high official said.
He said prices of commodities may go up in domestic and international markets. So the government entity is getting prepared to successfully intervene in the market in the coming days.
For the FY 2014-15, the TCB has set a target of collecting 50,000 tonnes of sugar worth Tk 2.55 billion, 20,000 tonnes of edible oil worth Tk 2.40 billion, 15,000 tonnes of lentils worth Tk 1.69 billion, 5,000 tonnes of onion Tk 357.6 million, 2,000 tonnes of gram worth Tk 129 million, 700 tonnes of dates worth Tk 116.5 million, 200 tonnes of spices worth Tk 177.5 million, 500 tonnes of ginger worth Tk 91.5 million and 500 tonnes of garlic worth 48.73 million, according to the TCB data.
The TCB will need a total of Tk 7.57 billion to collect the commodities, the data showed.