Most of the dealers of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh across the country are not interested in taking commodities from the TCB as its margin of
the prices in compare with the market are very low.
The corporation is supplying four products — soybean oil, chickpeas, sugar and red lentil — on the eve of Ramadan and the dealers have been asked to take their allotments in two phases.
More than 70 per cent of the dealers did not take their allotments of the first phase of the deadline ended on July 8, officials concerned said.
TCB chairman Sarwar Jahan Talukdar told New Age that out of 2,984 dealers, about 30 per cent had taken their allotment in the first phase.
‘It’s an achievement for the TCB that the market prices of the commodities have decreased after starting of the open market sale,’ he said.
‘This is the important thing that the TCB is intervening in the market successfully. So, the number of TCB dealers and quantity of their taking goods are not important,’ Sarwar said.
He also said that the corporation had decided to decrease the price of chickpea by Tk 2 a kg and the commodity would be selling at Tk 58 a kg from Tuesday (today).
The TCB started selling essential commodities through its open market operation and dealers across the country since June 23 in a bid to keep their prices under control during Ramadan, the fasting month of the Muslims.
The TCB is selling bottled soybean oil at Tk 121 per litre, unpacked at Tk 105 while palm oil at Tk 75 a litre. The corporation is also selling chickpea at Tk 60 a kg, red lentil at Tk 70 a kg and sugar at Tk 44 a kg.
Chandpur General Store at city’s Karwanbazar, also a TCB dealer, has not taken TCB products due to the low prices on the market.
Borhan Uddin, who runs the store, said it would not be possible to gain profit through TCB products as the market prices are sometimes lower than the TCB products.
Another dealer, Aminur Rahman Amin, said the customers, in most of the cases, would not like to buy TCB products while there were goods of fine quality at reasonable prices available on the market.
New Age Staff Correspondent in Khulna reports that only 35 out of 535 TCB dealers of 10 districts of the Khulna Division filled their quotas in taking the corporation goods till Monday.
TCB Khulna regional office senior officer Bazlur Rashid said he had written official letters on June 20 to all dealers to fill their quotas within the deadline and sell it at fair prices in their respective areas.
‘But I am getting cold responses from them,’ he said.
Action would be taken if they do not comply with the terms and conditions of the agreement in getting dealership licence, he added.
-With New Age input
