The government is going for a stocktaking of supplies and prices under an advance planning to keep Ramadan market under control by preventing price-fixing.
Under the initiative, government authorities will sit Sunday with country's nearly 50 trade associations and stakeholders to devise a plan ahead of Ramadan so that prices of key essential items remain stable during the holy month of fasting, officials said.
The meeting at the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) will review the prices of essential items in the city kitchen markets with commerce minister Tofail Ahmed in the chair, they added.
"We have taken initiatives to keep the markets of essential items stable throughout the year. We will sit Sunday to analyse the price-and-supply situation of the commodities," a senior commerce ministry official said.
At present both prices and supplies of various essentials in the capital city remained stable, he said, adding that the situation would have to be kept under control during Ramadan in the interest of the commoners.
In the meeting, necessary steps would be taken to stabilize the prices of garlic, sugar, edible oils, onions, dates and gram during Ramadan.
Representatives of the ministries of agriculture, and food, the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Bangladesh Tariff commission (BTC), Bangladesh Bank (BB), the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) and the Chief Controller of Imports & Exports will attend the meeting.
Representatives from the focal points of the 'Review of Commodities' Prices and Forecast' cell of the MoC will also attend the meeting.
The government, however, has decided to launch open-market sale (OMS) of key essentials such as sugar, soybean oils, lentils, gram and dates aiming to keep their prices within the means of common people during Ramadan, when prices of these mass-consumed items are usually jacked.
The TCB will go rationing the essential items in different parts of the country during the period using trucks in Dhaka, in Chittagong, in divisional cities and in district towns.
It will sell five types of commodities such as sugar, soybean oils, lentils, gram and dates, according to the TCB,
The government will start to sell key essential commodities at subsidised rates shortly to help keep prices and supplies stable during the holy month of Ramadan.
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