A section of relevant traders is to blame for the edible-oil crisis in Bangladesh as indicated by Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi while lamenting his misplaced trust on the traders regarding the pricing.
"I requested traders not to hike edible-oil price during the month of Ramadan in consideration of the woes of the consumers. It was a mistake to trust them," he says.
The minister expressed his resentment to the media after holding a meeting on edible-oil management with the refiners at the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) on Monday, in the wake of a crisis that seems to be cloaked in mists.
"Dealers and retailers were responsible for price machinations and crisis of edible oils in the markets," says a soft-spoken Munshi.
He mentioned that the government had requested the traders not to increase the prices of edible oils during the month of fasting and religious functions. But they didn't keep the request.
As such, the minister said, the government has directed all the agencies concerned to act to keep the prices of cooking oils stable through troubleshooting.
"The crisis of soybean oil in the markets was created due to the machinations of dealers and retailers. And due to this, the prices went up. However, we (the government) have urged the agencies concerned to keep a vigil to keep the prices stable and take action against the dealers and retailers responsible for price hike and crisis," he told the press.
"We have identified the cause of edible-oils crisis in the markets. The machinations (crisis) were not the work of any big group of companies (refiners) rather the dealers and retailers did it," the minister notes.
He said they had directed the authorities concerned to take legal action against those responsible for jacking up price through creating edible-oils crisis.
"We have urged the oil-mill owners (refiners) to cancel the dealership of unscrupulous dealers."
"We (the government) have identified them (market manipulators) and we will disclose their information," he said.
He holds out an assurance that the government will revise the prices of edible oils after seeing the trend of international-market prices.
"We (the government) will monitor international-market prices. We will also consider the price scenario in our neighbouring countries. And then we will revise the prices with the consideration to keep the prices as much low as possible," he said.
Further elaborating on the market-management plan he said the edible- oil prices would be readjusted after checking the price in letter of credits (LC) during clearing from Chittagong Port.
Mr Munshi said market-monitoring drives would be carried out at district and upazila levels to check further price volatility of soybean oil.
"If need be, we will take help from the law-enforcing agencies' personnel," he says about a tough stance.
The minister announced that 10 million families will get soybean oil at a rate of Tk 110 per litre from next month (June) from the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) rationing.
At present, he said, the TCB has no plans to increase soybean-oil price. The government trading wing now sells a litre of soybean oil at Tk 110 through truck sales.
He, however, rejects outright that there was syndicate responsible for the present price hike of edible oils.
"The prices of edible oils on the international market have shot up, so it (price) has increased in our country and it is just mathematics. The price of soybean oils was supposed to increase before Ramadan. But the government wanted the prices not to shot up during Ramadan. During that time some dealers and retailers had stockpiled soybean oils that led to the crisis," he mentions.
He said that action will be taken against the traders who insisted that the customers purchase another item while purchasing edible oil.
Chairman of City Group Fazlur Rahman said, "The millers (oil refiners) were not responsible for edible-oil crisis and price hike. There are edible oils and are yet to disappear from the markets."
He alleged that all on a sudden the retailers had created crisis of edible oils since May 5.
He blames the retailers for creating crisis of edible oils.
The chief of one of the biggest corporations in the sector, however, hopes that the supply of edible oils to the market will return to normal within next one day or two.
The minister lauded activities of the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) for its market-monitoring drive against artificial price hike and hoarding.
"It is a little bit difficult to reach out to thousands and thousands of businesses for monitoring. However, we are trying our level best to do this," he said.
Asked about the measures to be taken against a section of traders who were allegedly creating artificial crisis with edible oils, Mr Munshi said, "It (oil crisis) is happening at the retail level. Our DNCRP is continuously engaged in market monitoring and realised fines and awarded jail terms to the traders responsible for crisis."
He said the government also urged the association to take action against the traders responsible for creating edible-oil crisis.
He called upon the oil-mill owners (refiners) to conduct monitoring against unscrupulous dealers.
The refiners even could cancel the licence of unscrupulous dealers involved in such bad act (creating crisis with edible oil), he said.
"We are taking action whatever permitted legally," he told the reporters, adding: "We urged all our agencies to keep vigil aiming to keep the prices we have fixed earlier."
Asked when the price adjustment of edible oils will be done, he replied: "We used to sit every one and a half months. We will sit when there is a scope to reduce the prices of edible oils."
He mentioned that price of a litre of edible oil has been fixed in London, the United of Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, while there is also a crisis of edible oils in Germany.
Commerce secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh, Chairman of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh or TCB Brigadier-General Md Ariful Hasan and senior manager of S Alam Group Salahuddin Ahmed and TK Group director Shafiqul Akter Taslim were among others present.
Meanwhile, bottled soybean oil was still missing on Monday five days after the government had raised prices of the essential items in the latest hike.
Few shops in big essential commodity market areas had some bottles which were being sold at Tk 198 a litre.
Scarcity of loose palm and soybean oils also prevailed on the day as only a few shops had such oils. Loose soybean sold at the shops at Tk190-200 a litre, still Tk 10-20 a litre higher than that of the newly fixed government price of Tk 180 a litre.
Palm oil was traded at a maximum of Tk 180 a litre against the increased price of Tk 172 a litre.
talhabinhabib@yahoo.com