Asif warns of taking tougher action to break market syndicate

Adviser to the interim government on the Ministries of Labour and Employment Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain today said that the government would take tougher action to break syndicate aimed at keeping the commodities price stable.

He said that the government was considering launching of agriculture market to prevent dominance of the syndicate in the commodity markets.

Asif, also the Adviser on the Ministry of Youth and Sports, made the remarks while inaugurating the operations of truck sale by the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) at Dakhshin Begunbari (Dipikar Mor), Tejgaon Industrial Area in the capital today.

Noting that prices of commodities increase due to the syndicate and middlemen, he said that the government had been working in all possible means by giving priority to break syndicate in the long-term.

“From big cities to local level, government task force concerned has been working to this end,” he added.

Mentioning that it is crucial to reduce the dominance of the middlemen from producers or farmers to consumer level, the Adviser said that the government would extend all sorts of cooperation to those private enterprises, who are doing social business by reaching commodities to the consumers from the entrepreneurs, said a press release.

He said that the government is also considering launching alternate agriculture market as part of its long-term plan to stop the price hike of commodities where the farmers could reach their products to the markets.

The TCB today started selling commodities including rice at subsidized prices through truck sale among the common consumers in Dhaka and Chattogram.

Under such an initiative, essential items like edible oil, lentil alongside rice provided by the Directorate General of Food are being sold among general consumers at the subsidized rates through 50 trucks in Dhaka metropolis and 20 trucks in Chattogram metropolis while such operations will continue until November 30, 2024.

Such operations of the TCB could be extended until the inflationary situation comes to a tolerable level.

Under this move, each consumer can buy maximum 2 liters of edible oil at Taka 100 per liter, 2 kgs of lentil at Taka 60 per kg and 5 kgs of rice at Taka 30 per kg.

TCB has been continuing the operation for selling essential items like edible oil and lentil at subsidized prices among some one crore family card holder low-income group people under the directives of the ministry of commerce. (BSS)