Kazi Azizul Islam
The bakers and restaurant owners continue to charge high prices for their products, which are made using flour and oil, despite the price of the two major essentials declined drastically in the past several months.
The price of the food items at bakery shops and restaurants in the capital city was found remaining almost unchanged, depriving the consumers of the benefits of decreased prices of the two commodities.
A leader of the Bangladesh Bread Biscuit-O-Confectionery Prastutkarak Samity said they had cut price of their items significantly, but the retailers were depriving the consumers by not following their revised price chart.
A leader of the Bangladesh Restaurant Owners Association admitted that many of the restaurant owners were charging high price for the food items.
At different shops and restaurants in the Dhaka city, one-pound plain bread of various brands were found selling between Tk 25 and Tk 32 and a kilogram of unflavoured toast biscuits between Tk 100 and Tk 180.
The price of the two major bakery items increased by around 50 per cent in the middle of 2008 as the price of flour and edible oil went up on the international market.
‘In the past three or four months, the price of flour declined by about 40 per cent and palm oil by 50 per cent on the wholesale market, but the prices of bakery items still remain almost unchanged,’ said Emadad Hossain Malek, head of the market monitoring cell of the Consumer Association of Bangladesh.
M Jalal Uddin, president of the Confectioners’ Association, informed that they had reduced the wholesale price of bakery items by around 15 per cent with the fall in price of flour and edible oil.
‘But the retailers still charge high price for the bakery products,’ he said.
At different restaurants at Motijheel, Mohakhali and Karwan Bazar in the capital, nun, chapati, puri and other food items were found selling still at high price, although the price of flour and edible oil, two major essentials for making those food items, had declined significantly in the past several months.
In most of the restaurants, a piece of chapati or nun was selling at Tk 10, which is double its price two years back while a medium size puri was being sold at Tk 5, up by Tk 2 from its price two years ago.
Osman Gani, proprietor of the Noakahli Restaurant on the Topkhana Road, observed that the owners of some restaurants reduced the prices of their food items in the meantime, but many others were still charging high price for their products.
‘I feel the prices of restaurant food items should come down as the price of flour and edible oil have declined significantly,’ said Gani, a member of the Bangladesh Restaurant Owners Association.
Kazi Faruque, general secretary of the Consumer Association of Bangladesh, said the government should check such profiteering by the bakers and restaurant owners and compel the profit-mongers to cut the price of the food products, which are made using flour and edible oil.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
