The Cabinet on Monday approved in principle the draft of 'The Agriculture Produce Markets Regulation Bill, 2018' toughening punishment for violation of the law.
The approval was given at the regular weekly meeting of the cabinet held at the Prime Minister's Office with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
After the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam briefed reporters at the Secretariat.
He said the new draft bill has been proposed reorganising 'The Warehouses Ordinance, 1959' and 'The Agricultural Produce Markets Regulation Act, 1964' to make the existing law more time-befitting, reports UNB.
Shafiul Alam said the aim of the proposed law is to give the National Agriculture Marketing Coordination Committee and three other committees working under the existing law a legal shape.
The three committees are District Agriculture Marketing Coordination Committee, Upazila Agriculture Marketing Coordination Committee and Market Based Management Committee.
According to the draft law, doing business in any notified market without having a licence or handing over licence of a agriculture trader to others for doing business will be considered as a punishable offence according to section 22 of the proposed law.
For such an offence, Shafiul Alam said, there is a provision of a one-year jail term or Tk 100,000 as fine in the proposed law instead of two months' imprisonment or Tk 2,000 as fine in the existing law.
