Commerce ministry has started intensifying its market-monitoring drive amid spiralling prices of commodities, including edible oils, to ease consumer woes.
As such, the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) and the Bangladesh Competition Commission (BCC) have taken measures to check artificial hike in prices in the local market.
Apart from the ongoing market watch, the directorate provided a hotline 16121 on Friday to facilitate customer complaints against traders selling soyabean oil beyond the government-fixed prices.
It made the move amid an escalation in soyabean and palm oil prices locally.
"…If a customer thinks s/he is overcharged by traders, they can lodge complaints with the directorate by using the hotline," DNCRP director Monjur Mohammad Shahriar told the media on Friday.
"We'd take rapid action after getting complaints from consumers against profit-mongers selling edible oil beyond the government-set prices," he vowed.
Meanwhile, unscrupulous traders still look non-compliant with the government directives on oil prices despite the ongoing drive against price rigging.
A BCC high official told the FE that the commission has formed a three-member 'finding team' last Thursday.
The BCC has provided email address 'secretary.ccb2021 @gmail.com', requesting the public to send information about oil traders seeking high prices and creating instability in the market, he said.
The official said that the BCC would not disclose the identities of the complainants.
On February 06, the ministry at a meeting fixed pet-bottled soyabean oil at Tk 168 per litre while a five-litre pet bottle at Tk 795.
Besides, the price of loose soyabean oil a litre was fixed at Tk 143 and palm oil at Tk 133.
Wholesalers blame local refiners of reducing the supply of soyabean oil with a plea of a price hike in the international market, thus fuelling an artificial crisis here.
In such a situation, the prices of soyabean and palm oil are soaring day by day, they say.
Considering the current situation, the DNCRP has recently written to refiners to know the status of their import of crude soyabean oil and refined oil.
On the other hand, oil refiners point their fingers at wholesalers and retailers for price manipulation as they claim their supply is as usual.
They accuse wholesalers and retailers of stockpiling edible oils to make a windfall ahead of Ramadan, thus creating an artificial crisis in the market.
But the traders deny it, saying that they are not getting soyabean oil regularly from refiners.
As refiners/companies are not supplying soyabean oil to wholesalers, they say, the market undergoes a crisis.
To tame this price volatility, the government has waived value-added tax on soyabean, sugar and grams for three months considering consumer woes in the upcoming fasting month.
Despite VAT waiver, traders say, soyabean prices may not come down shortly as the earlier imported soyabean crude oil was costly.
According to wholesalers, there will be a positive impact on the prices when the new shipment of crude soyabean without VAT enters the country.
On 19 October 2021, the ministry fixed a litre of pet- bottled oil price at Tk 160 and loose at Tk 136.
A five-litre pet bottled soyabean oil was fixed at Tk 760 while a litre of palm oil was Tk 118.
Commerce minister Tipu Munshi recently told the media that the government has been intensifying market monitoring to check price spiral during Ramadan.
