The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh is going to start selling onion on open market across the country on Monday at Tk 55 a kg, up by Tk 8 from the price the corporation sold it in late August and early September, commerce ministry officials said.
The open market sale of the product in Dhaka, however, will start on Sunday, they said.
The state-owned trading agency will also continue its intervention in the domestic markets till Eid-ul-Azha in a bid to ease the soaring price of onion, they added.
In its earlier intervention, the TCB sold a total of 200 tonnes of onion on the
kitchen market at Tk 47 a kg across the country.
The ministry took the decision at a meeting on Thursday as the price of onion increased again over the last few days after coming down a little following the TCB intervention.
Commerce secretary Mahbub Ahmed told New Age that the government had taken the initiative to keep the price of onion at a reasonable level.
The price of onion for open market sale has been fixed at Tk 55 after giving a substantial amount of subsidy as its price increased on the international market in last few days, he said.
The government will have to give Tk 12 as subsidy for a kilogram of onion to be sold on mobile market under dealers across the country, according to the ministry officials.
A total of 100 tonnes of onion imported by TCB from India has already reached Benapole border and it will arrive in Dhaka by Saturday.
Some more imports are in the pipeline.
The ministry has also decided to provide importers with necessary assistance to import onion from countries, particularly from Myanmar, to ease the market.
The government is actively considering a proposal from the importers for providing bank loan at a reduced interest of 12 per cent for importing onion.
Importers’ representatives who attended the meeting requested the government to give the highest priority to release of onion from ports.
Representatives from different government agencies also attended the meeting presided by commerce ministry additional secretary Manoj Kumar Roy.
Among other initiatives, a government team consisting of commerce ministry additional secretary Amitava Chakrabarty and TCB chairman Sarwar Jahan Talukdar on Thursday went to Teknaf at Cox’s Bazar to expedite the process of importing onion from Myanmar.
The team will talk to the businessmen and local administration to identify the problems and solve them.
On the other hand, the government has already requested India to lift the ceiling of export price of onion and let the price be determined by the markets, Mahbub said.
India has fixed the export price of onion at $650 per tonne.
He said that the price of onion would come down in 10-15 days as Indian farmers began harvesting the product.
-With New Age input
