Is creating price hike in Ramadan a market manipulation

The holy month of Ramadan has begun across the country. Today is the second day of fasting.

According to the Bangladesh Tariff and Trade Commission (BTTC) report, the import of daily necessities has increased ahead of the Ramadan.

During the period from July 1 to January 5 of the current financial year (2024-25), the rate of opening of credit for raw sugar, rice, lentils, chickpeas and dates has increased compared to the same period of the previous year.

Market analysts say that even if the import and supply situation is well, the prices of products often increase due to manipulation in the local market.

Then again an artificial shortage of a particular product is created.

However, they believe that the increase in the price of dollar against taka also affect the local market.

Generally, if the supply of daily commodities is less, the price increases and if the supply is more, the price decreases, but this formula of economy is not applicable in all cases in Bangladesh.

Especially on the days of fasting, the demand for the products increases, despite the abundant supply in the market.

And a vested group of traders raises the prices to make a windfall profit.

In that case, besides increasing the supply of products in the market, monitoring should also be strengthened.

Mentionable that after the caretaker government took over on August 8 last year, commodity prices started to rise in September-October.

In this situation, the import duty of rice, egg, soybean oil, palm oil, sugar, onion, potato, dates etc.

products was reduced in the middle of October. Last August, the official dollar rate for imports was around 120 taka.

However, due to the crisis, importers had to buy dollars at 123 to 124 taka. Now the official import price is 123 taka.

Recently, due to the increase of VAT or value added tax on hundreds of products, the cost has increased in many sectors including clothes, medicine, sweets, fruit juice, LP gas.

Prices of imported fruits have increased by almost two times depending on the area.

In many countries, prices of goods are reduced during religious festivals. But the businessmen in Bangladesh take the religious festivals as an opportunity to earn extra money.

It is expected that the interim government will make all efforts to keep the market stable during the entire month of fasting.