When the government blames the media for instigating price hikes of essentials, market observers say inaction and lack of preparation on the part of the government mainly invited volatility in the market.

The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh started its Ramadan open market sales programme with stocks which would be less than one per cent of daily consumption of essential goods.

That supply is not even reliable as most of some 100 TCB dealers exhausted their limited allotments of items like soybean oil, lentils and sugar, and were losing interest in running the outlets. TCB had launched its sales scheme on August 23 with less than 3,700 tonnes of bottled soybean oil and around 1,000 tonnes of sugar. TCB dealers were selling sugar at Tk 40 per kilogram and soybean oil at Tk 76 per litre.

The Maulvibazar Merchants Association that groups the city’s leading wholesalers estimates that daily Ramadan sale averages around 5,000 tonnes of edible oil and 4,500 tonnes of sugar in the city. With six days of Ramadan passed on Friday, TCB is yet to procure 500 tonnes of chickpeas as the commerce ministry had earlier said. According to a leading chickpea importer based in Khatunganj of Chittagong, some 80,000 tonnes of the main iftar item are sold during the month of Ramadan.

Sources said TCB was not able to meet the demand of dealers as its ready stocks of sugar and edible oil almost ran out by Thursday. Seeking anonymity, one senior official of TCB agreed that sales outlets were emptied quickly as TCB dealers were failing to meet consumers’ demand this year with limited stocks. ‘Less availability of varieties of commodities and little price differences from the market might have made TCB outlets less attractive to consumers,’ said the official.

The commerce ministry earlier said it would import 12,000 tonnes of sugar and 25,000 tonnes of edible oils, but no visible progress was made in this regard. TCB, however, arranged 12,000 tonnes of ordinary grade palm oil from a private refiner, Prime Vegetable Oil Mills of the Meghna Group. Dealers earlier rejected the TCB’s request to procure the palm oil from Prime Vegetable Oil Mills depot at Meghnaghat. TCB officials claimed that they had finalised dealership agreements with more than a thousand dealers—three in every DCC Ward and two in every upazila. TCB insiders however informed New Age that at best 300 dealers were active now.

Emdad Hossain Malek, chief of the market monitoring cell at the Consumer Association of Bangladesh said, ‘TCB has failed to make any impact on the market as its stocks remain poor and it could not start its sales programme timely and in a big way.’ Asked to comment on government remarks about media instigation in price hikes, Emdad said, ‘The government should do its duties properly at first and then blame the media or others.’

Uttar Banga Chashi Kalyan Samaity general secretary Badsha Mia said the government could easily prevent irrational price hikes of potato if preparations were there. ‘To ensure adequate supply, farmers and the government can jointly maintain stocks of potato and prevent hoarders from making windfall profits creating a supply crisis,’ suggested Badsha Mia. BADC cold storages should be repaired and new units should be added to ensure enough storage facilities for potatoes, he suggested. Potato was retailed at Tk 30 a kilogram on Thursday against Tk 18 and Tk 20 a year ago. The commerce ministry last week had fixed wholesale price of potato at Tk 22-23 a kilogram and suggested retail price at Tk 25-26, but market ignored the rates totally.