The Ministry of Commerce has fixed the maximum retail price of palm oil and sugar. Earlier, the government fixed the price of palm super oil while fixing the price of soybean oil.

This time the price of sugar has also been added there. This announcement came amid discussions that the government is working on fixing the prices of 9 daily commodities recently.

A notification on Thursday fixed the maximum retail price of open palm super oil, refined open sugar and refined packet sugar.

There, the maximum retail price of open palm super oil has been fixed at Tk 133 per litre, refined open sugar at Tk 84 per kg and refined packet sugar at Tk 89 per litre. The new price will be effective from September 25.

Open sugar was sold at around Tk 90 and packet sugar at Tk 95 per kg in Dhaka market yesterday. Sugar prices have been on the rise for several months. Among these, an official proposal to increase the price of sugar was also given to the Ministry of Commerce by the Bangladesh Sugar Refiners Association. The proposal was made by bringing forward the issue of massive devaluation of the rupee against the dollar.

Meanwhile, the new price has been determined according to the recommendations of the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission, according to the notification. Besides the maximum retail price, the millgate price and distributor price of these products have also been fixed. However, the big companies say that the government has not discussed with them the issue of fixing the price of sugar.

In this regard, City Group Director (Corporate and Regulatory Affairs) Biswajit Saha told Prothom Alo, ‘The price of sugar has been fixed without any discussion with us. In this case, the fact that we are importing products by buying dollars at 108 to 110 taka, has not been taken into consideration.

Earlier, on August 30, the Ministry of Commerce announced that the government will determine the prices of 9 products including rice, flour, flour, edible oil, sugar, lentils, cement, and rods. A few meetings have already been held to decide what the reasonable price of these products should be.

Meanwhile, it was seen yesterday in Dhaka’s Palashi Bazar, New Market Raw Market and Kanthal Bagan Bazar, that despite efforts to bring down the price of rice in the market through import and various government activities, the price is still not decreasing. A kg of coarse rice is still above Tk 50 in the retail market. Somewhere around 55 rupees are being sold. Medium quality BR-28 rice is retailing at around Rs.60.

Apart from this, miniket rice is being sold above Tk 70 per kg and Nazirshail rice at Tk 85 per kg. The price of flour in the market is higher again. Open flour is being sold at around Rs.55. The price of open flour is above 60 rupees.

Mamun Hossain, a seller of Amatun Noor Rice Agency in Newmarket raw market, told Prothom Alo, “They are talking about importing rice, but when I go to buy it, I can’t get imported rice.”