The edible oil refiners have submitted a proposal again to the government, seeking a hike in the maximum retail price (MRP) of the daily essential item.
They requested the government to raise the MRP of bottled soybean oil to Tk 186 per litre (MRP) from existing Tk 168, which was approved by the government on February 06 last from the previous rate of Tk 160 a litre.
The government had also fixed loose soybean oil price at Tk 143 and palm oil Tk 133 per litre on the same day based on a refiners' proposal submitted in January last.
In their latest proposal, the refiners have, however, urged for fixing the MRP of loose soybean oil at Tk 161 a litre and palm oil at Tk 150 a litre, said a Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) official.
He said Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners and Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (BVORBMA) submitted the proposal on February 03 to the BTTC for a review.
A meeting with the refiners would be held within this month when a decision would be taken based on available market information, he added.
However, the MRP of loose soybean and palm oil have almost crossed the prices proposed by the refiners on February 03 which were yet to be approved by the government, according to the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) data.
Loose soybean was retailing at Tk 160-165 a litre and super palm at Tk 145-150 a litre in the mainstream markets for the last three days, according to the TCB and city vendors at different markets.
Asked, Biswajit Saha, director of City Group that markets Teer branded essential commodities, said the proposal has been submitted for further review of the edible oil prices following the skyrocketing prices in the global market.
He said a deluge in Brazil as well as a fire in the world's biggest soya processing plant 'Louis Dreyfus' in the US has further intensified volatility in the global market as crude soybean oil jumped to US$1620-1640 per tonne this month.
He said Indonesia has almost stopped exporting palm oil which has also caused a surge in palm oil price as high as $1550 a tonne in this month.
He said the freight charge from Brazil has also increased to more than $110 per tonne in recent months from $40 a tonne earlier.
Despite such a hike in the global market, the government is yet to bring any review into the existing taxes on imported soybean and palm oil, he said.
Value chain expert and agricultural economist Prof Golam Hafeez Kennedy said that apart from ensuring strict market monitoring, the government should immediately remove all kinds of taxes on import-based essentials like edible oil for a certain period following the global price trend.
He said loose palm oil prices crossed Tk 150 a litre which is a warning sign for the government as millions of poor couldn't afford the essentials during this pandemic while their income declined in real terms.
"Even the low and middle income families have fallen into a hardship and misery of high inflation," he said.
And, the holy month of Ramadan is also approaching within a month when demands for essentials increase substantially, he said.
So, the government should immediately bring equilibrium in the market by initiating timely policies to help millions of poor people to afford essential commodities, he added.
Bangladesh imports more than 2.0 million tonnes of soybean and palm oil annually to meet around 2.2 million tonnes of demand.
The current edible oil retail prices are above 40 per cent higher than that of a year back and it is 80-100 per cent pricier than that of the pre-pandemic level, according to the TCB.
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