RSS Feed (xml)
traders today to review sugar price and the existing rules of sugar
distribution system from the mill gates to the retail level. "We will
meet the sugar refiners, dealers, wholesalers and the retailers to
look into the import and supply scenario. They ( businessmen) were
demanding a revision of sugar price. We will examine the situation
and then decide," Commerce Secretary Feroz Ahamed said yesterday. The
government is holding the meeting seven days into forming two
committees to investigate the sugar price manipulation during the
month of Ramadan. Sugar price at retail level went up to Tk 65- Tk 70
a kg in violation of the government- fixed rate of Tk 42 till
September 30. Even after the Eid-ul-Fitr, the price remained at Tk
58- Tk 60 , which is now Tk 55- Tk 57 a kg. Following the
announcement by Commerce Minister Faruk Khan that the dishonest
traders would be arrested, eight to ten businessmen of the capital's
wholesale market, Moulvibazar, had gone into hiding, while many
other businesses did not open their shops. After a September 29
meeting with the businessmen at the ministry, the traders returned
to the shops, but sugar supply is still not adequate in the market,
the traders said. "The millers used to supply 20 to 25 truck- load of
sugar to Moulvibazar everyday, but now the supply in the wholesale
market came down to only two to three trucks," said Abdul Hashem, a
sugar dealer at the market. Moulvibazar Traders' Association General
Secretary Golam Mawla said they would request the government to help
bring discipline in the sugar distribution and pricing system. "Under
the present system, the mills sell sugar in advance. But, when the
demand rises, the mills cannot deliver in accordance with orders.
This creates problems and prices go up," he said.
