The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh on Tuesday started selling four commodities in the open market in a bid to keep the prices affordable to consumers during the coming Ramadan but the sales were yet to get momentum. The TCB officials said that the corporation would sell five essential commodities in the open market across the country but consumers would have to wait a few days for dates.
Another four items –– lentils, edible oil, sugar and gram–– are now available in the TCB outlets, officials said.
On the first day, the TCB operation attracted very few consumers due to lack of proper publicity, salesmen of the outlets in front of National Press Club, secretariat and Shantinagar kitchen market said.
A few number of customer were found at the TCB outlet in front of Shantinagar kitchen market in the city at noon and they came to buy sugar and gram.
Ayesha Akter, a housewife who came from Bijoynagar to buy sugar to the Shantinagar outlet, told New Age, ‘I heard that the government started selling products at lower price and so I came here to buy a few kilogram of sugar for Ramadan’.
She said that if she could buy
products from the TCB outlets some money would be saved as the price of sugar already increased in the retail market to Tk 50 a kg while the government is selling at Tk 39 a kg.
Mohammad Jamal, a salesman at the outlet said that on the first day, they were late to start selling but the response of the consumers was good.
‘On the first day a good number of consumers bought products and I think we have to face rush in a few days,’ he said.
Jamal said that most of the consumers were buying sugar and gram.
TCB was scheduled to engage174 trucks, including 25 in Dhaka, 10 in Chittagong, five in each divisional city and two in each district town, for selling commodities, but the operation is yet to start in most of the district towns.
The TCB has failed to ensure sales on trucks at 25 spots in Dhaka on the first day but the operation in all designated points would start from today, a TCB official said.
At the TCB outlets, soya bean oil was being sold at Tk 106-Tk 107 per litre, sugar at Tk 39 per kg, lentil at Tk 65 per kg and gram at Tk 44 per kg.
From the beginning of Ramadan dates will be sold at Tk 70 per kg at the sale centres.
-With New Age input
