CHATTOGRAM, Mar 19: Key essential items, including edible oil, sugar, redmeat, chilly and rice became costlier at both retail and wholesale levels in the port city ahead of Holy Shab-e-Barat and Ramadan.
Visiting different city markets on Friday, this correspondent found some essentials, especially cooking oil, chicken, green chilly, cucumber and beef witnessed a sharp rise in the last couple of weeks.
Beef was sold at Tk 750 to 800 per kilogram (kg) on the day which was 600 to 650 one week back at Reajuddin Bazar, Kazir Dewri, Karnaphuli Complex, Bahaddarhat and Chawkbazaar markets.
Green chilly was sold at Tk 180-200 a kg on the day which was Tk 140-150 last week.
Talking to the FE, the retailers claimed that they were selling green chilly according to the change in its prices at the wholesales.
"We've nothing to do. We fix the prices of essentials according the wholesale prices," a vegetable retailer of Kazir Dewri kitchen market said this afternoon.
At wholesales, sugar was sold at Tk 2,340 per mound on Friday which was Tk 2,180 two weeks back.
Palm oil, a widely used cooking oil, became dearer by Tk 280 per mound in the last two weeks while the price of soybean oil increased by Tk 300 per mound than that was in the previous month.
Price of mutton increased by Tk 150 in the last one week as the red meat was sold at Tk 750 to Tk 800 per kg which was Tk 600-650 seven days back.
Cucumber, a widely used vegetable durig summers and also in Ramadan, continued to get pricier at the city's kitchen markets. One kilogram cucumber was sold at Tk 50-60 on the day which was Tk 28-30 a week ago.
Consumers on Friday alleged, despite displaying the price lists of essentials, including sugar, edible oil, gram (chhola), onion, brinjal and potato in front of the shops, retailers at the city markets sold the same at Tk 2-5 higher than the a rates mentioned in the list.
When asked Abul Kalam, a retailer of Karnaphuli Complex said, "We're not making huge profit but charging per kilogram essential items Tk 2-3 higher than the wholesale rates."
On the other hand, the buyers alleged that the traders have adopted a new policy for hiking prices of essentials ahead of Ramadan.
"The traders have started to hike prices of essentials from the first week of the current month. Prices of most of the essentials have been hiked at least one week before the Shab-e-Barat. As a result, nobody can say that the prices have been hiked suddenly. The buyers are the sufferers for the rampant and silent price hike," said Salma Begum, a buyer at Kazir Dewri Bazar.
Refuting the allegation, the retailers said that they were not involved with the latest price hike.
Norendra Nath, a retailer at Reajuddin Bazar said, "We are buying the essentials from wholesale markets with high prices and selling the same with 10-15 per cent profit. If we buy essentials at high rates, we have to sale the same at higher rates."
Meanwhile, staple rice, gram and chicken, a source of protein for consumers, especially the commoners, also became costlier in the week, augmenting sufferings of the low-income city-dwellers.
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