The prices of essential commodities, especially onion, sugar, chicken, lentil and edible oil, remained high in the city's kitchen markets on Thursday.
A kilogramme (kg) of local variety of onion was still selling between Tk 70 and Tk 75 on the day, against Tk 40-45 a couple of weeks back.
Retailers said that they had purchased onion at Tk 65 a kg from wholesalers on the day.
So they are bound to sell onions at Tk 70 per kg, making only a minimal profit, they said.
To them, the shortage of supply and fall in imports from neighbouring India are responsible behind the present high prices of onion on the local market.
The retailers hoped that the prices of onion would become normal once there was sufficient supply of the spice in the markets.
Meanwhile, sugar was sold at Tk 90 a kg on the retail market on the day which was traded between Tk 65 and Tk 70 a kg a couple of weeks back.
A kg of broiler chicken was sold between Tk 180 and Tk 190, while the prices of Sonali variety ranged from Tk 320 to Tk 330 per kg on the day.
A kg of lentil of local variety was sold at Tk 120-125, while the prices of imported ones ranged between Tk 90 and Tk 110 per kg.
Two-litre bottled soybean oil of different brands was trading from Tk 300 to Tk 310 on the day.
Tomato was sold between Tk 100 and Tk 120 a kg, while carrot from Tk 100 to Tk 120, green papaya from Tk 30 to Tk 40, brinjal from Tk 40 to Tk 50, ladies finger from Tk 50 to Tk 60 and green chilli from Tk 180 to Tk 200 a kg.
People from lower-income groups who are the worst sufferers of the ongoing price hike of the commodities, urged the government to control the skyrocketing prices of the essential items by intensifying the market monitoring drives.
Traders hoped that the prices of onion would become normal once there was sufficient supply of this spice in the markets.
Meanwhile, even after increased allocation of onion to dealers of the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) for selling it through open market sale (OMS), price of this spice is yet to come down to a tolerable-level.
TCB through its truck dealers has been selling onion (mainly imported variety) at Tk 30 a kg, while sugar and lentils at Tk 55 per kg each and soybean oil at Tk 100 per litre.
A customer can purchase two-kg lentils, two-kg sugar, four-kg onions and two-litre soybean oil at a time.
