Govt struggling to stop commodity market manipulators

Staff Reporter :
Ahead of Ramzan, government is struggling to control the commodity market manipulators. The prices of all the daily goods is skyrocketing and gradually prices going beyond the reach of common people.
A section of unscrupulous traders has been trying to make the basic commodity market unstable by creating a syndicate as the cycle is on the verge of creating an artificial crisis of daily commodities. Although the government tries to control the market through easing the LC opening process, slashing duties, operating mobile courts, use other market monitoring mechanisms still the common groceries are getting expensive ahead of the holy month.
According to experts, every year when the Ramzan comes, without any major cause a class of traders start various kinds of mischief. This year there is no exception seen, as they have a lot of excuses like LC opening crisis, devaluation of Taka against USD, global price hike of food grains, global supply chain disruption etc.
As the shortage of management is more acute rather than the shortage of required commodities, government should work more practically after using all its responsible apparatus to stop the market manipulation, they added.
According to sources, during the Ramzan around three lakh metric tons of edible oil and sugar, one lakh tonnes of chickpeas, about 50 thousand tonnes of dates, about one lakh metric tonnes of lentils and 4 lakh tonnes of onions are required. The Ministry of Commerce confirmed that sufficient amount of products have been imported compared to the demand. But practically, the prices of many products are still beyond reach at the consumer level.
Bangladesh’s annual demand for sugar is 18-20 lakh tonnes. However, the demand for sugar is 1.5 lakh tonnes per month, which doubles in Ramzan.
According to last available data from the Ministry of Commerce, the import of sugar during the July-December period of 2022 decreased by about 2.08 lakh tonnes compared to the same period in 2021.
Around 10.49 lakh tonnes of soybean oil were imported in the country from last July-December.
At the same time in the previous year, the import amount was 8.87 tonnes which means 1.61 lakh tonnes more were imported.
In July-December 2022, 6.4 lakh tonnes of palm oil were imported where 5.36 lakh tonnes imported in the same period of 2021.
Moreover, about 1.89 lakh tonnes of lentils have been imported in the last 6 months of 2022 and the same period last year of 2021, 1.09 lakh tonnes were imported. Means, this time 80 thousand tonnes more of pulses have been imported. The amount of chickpea import is increasing significantly to cover the gap between demand and supply.
Regarding the market manipulators ahead of the holy month, Commerce Secretary (Senior) Tapan Kanti Ghosh said that, there is a sufficient stock of products for the upcoming holy month of Ramzan, so the market will remain stable.
The open market economy also has a set of rules. Government does not want to interfere in the market principles. As long as the traders are making profit as they need to make logically, there is no need for intervention by the authority. But, those who want to avoid the market principles, the government must take action against those market manipulators, he added.
President of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Ghulam Rahman said that the government should identify the people who are really responsible for the product crisis in the commodity market. No black hand can be indulged. The government has to play the role of strong referee here.