Efforts on to ensure smooth market supply to communities: Commerce minister

Saying the home minister is taking steps to curb extortion to control commodity prices, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said monitoring has been strengthened to ensure a smooth supply of goods to the market.

"Prices will remain under control if the normal supply of goods is ensured. A task force is monitoring to keep the supply normal at any cost," he said after the meeting of the task force committee on commodity price review at the commerce ministry on Monday.

The minister said district police has been directed to eliminate difficulties in the transportation of goods, stop extortion, and to assist in ferry crossings. The home minister is providing all possible cooperation for the smooth functioning of such work.

"We have observed that the rate at which VAT has been waived on edible oil has already had an impact on the market. However, the number of retailers in the market is several lakh," said the commerce minister.

"Maybe there are some exceptions. In order to prevent that from happening, steps are being taken to increase the supply of goods in the market," he added.

Noting that 90,000 tons of cooking oil has been imported since the VAT waiver, he said, "Now we are monitoring who is trying to take advantage of the situation."

The minister also said there are plans to make the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) more active in controlling commodity prices. TCB has a market share of 30-32% in the market for Ramadan goods. This trend will continue in the future.