The government is set to prepare a methodology for fixing the prices of 13 more essential items with a view to avoiding any price debacle of such products in the market, officials said.
To this effect, Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) has constituted a subcommittee under the national committee on price monitoring and fixing.
The decision came at a meeting of the national committee on price reviewing and fixing held on January 31 at BTTC.
The nine-member subcommittee will submit a draft report in this regard to the national committee. Members will be co-opted into the committee, if necessary.
The committee will take necessary decisions based on the recommendations to be made by the subcommittee.
It will prepare necessary price-fixing method of essential goods especially onion, salt, garlic, ginger, lentil, gram, red chili and spice items such as cardamom, cinnamon, clove, bay leaves, coriander, and cumin) except sugar and edible oil.
In 2011, the national committee on price monitoring and fixing developed a price-fixing method on sugar and edible oil.
Production cost, import prices including milling charges, processing and packaging costs, and import duty will be reviewed to prepare the proposed method, according to a BTTC office order.
Besides, transport cost, profit margin of producers and importers and profit margin of wholesalers and retailers will also be reviewed, the order mentioned.
From now on, the meeting of the national committee will be held every month, a high official of BTTC said.
The method is one kind of tools for keeping the prices of essential items stable throughout the year, according to the meeting decision, he added.
The prices of various key essentials would have to be kept under the purchasing capacity of consumers, he also said, adding that generally, the prices of key essentials in the market shot up now and then especially Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha.
"A method which is underway will be finalized shortly," a senior official of the commerce ministry said.
This is to stop market price volatility as the common people suffer for such volatile market. "We believe this will be a good instrument to control the behavior of prices of key essential items," a high official of the ministry said.
