Police seized 92,616 litres of soybean oil during a raid on a market in Rajshahi’s Puthia Upazila on Tuesday as a shortage of cooking oil continued to plague consumers amid a price hike.
Besides, police seized 27,000 litres of cooking oil in another operation on two warehouses at Bagmara’s Taherpur of the district on Monday, reports bdnews24.com.
Acting on information gathered by detectives, the law enforcers searched five warehouses at Baneshwar Bazar and found the oil stored in 454 drums on Tuesday, said Ifte Khayer Alam, an additional superintendent of police.
The hoarders intended to take advantage of the ongoing crisis by selling the oil at an increased price, according to Ifte khayer.
Police found 74 drums of soybean oil in the warehouse of Sarker and Sons, 60 drums on a truck outside the warehouse, 142 drums in Entaz Store warehouse, 103 in M/S Paul and Brothers and 75 drums in Ria Store’s warehouse. Each drum contains 204 litres of oil.
“They created an artificial crisis by hoarding oil,” the police officer said. The hoarders will face cases under the Special Powers Act, he said.
Authorities in Dhaka, Chattogram and Rajshahi seized more than 75,000 litres of soybean and palm oil stashed in stores and the home of a trader earlier in the week.
The traders bought the products that had been imported at lower prices before the hike, but they were selling it at the new rate.
In Rajshahi on Monday, police seized 27,000 litres of soybean oil in an operation on two warehouses at Bagmara’s Taherpur. A trader has landed in jail in a case after Monday’s drive.
Soybean oil vanished from shelves ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr in the beginning of May. Later, mill owners decided to raise the price of soybean oil by Tk 40 per litre to around Tk 200 with the consent of the commerce ministry. But the move did little to improve the situation.
According to estimates by the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, traders have stockpiled 40,000 tonnes of soybean oil in the space of 10 days to make extra profits.
In the face of the ongoing turmoil in the cooking oil market, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi slammed retailers and wholesalers for taking advantage of the government's "trust" by hoarding products in the hope of profiting from the crisis.
"Our shortcoming was in trusting the traders. It was a mistake," he told reporters on Monday. “Even though the mill owners have kept their word, retailers and wholesalers have taken advantage of the situation.”