Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said that if sugar is sold at higher prices in the market, the administration will start taking action from next week.
"Bangladesh Tariff Commission has decided the price of sugar after calculation and analysis,” he said while talking to reporters at the Secretariat on Thursday.
The minister added: “We have fixed a price for sugar considering the global market."
He mentioned that in the last 15-20 days, the price of sugar in the global market has increased by $45-50 per ton. “We have to import 99% of our sugar. Due to these reasons, our dependence on foreign countries is high. If global prices rise, we will be affected.”
The minister also stated that some dishonest traders take advantage of this situation.
“Sugar is being sold at a higher price than the price we have fixed. We are looking into what businessmen are doing about this,” he noted.
The government on Wednesday gave its permission to sugar refiners, who will now be able to raise prices of the commodity by Tk16 per kilogram in retail, with immediate effect.
This means that the price of unpacked sugar would rise from Tk104 per kg to Tk120, according to a Commerce Ministry circular.
The price of packaged refined sugar has been hiked to Tk125 per kg from Tk109.
Sugar is being traded at a multi-year high in the global market amid tight supply and production concerns in key producing countries, including India, one of the largest producers of the sweetener in the world.
Refiners, which meet almost the entire domestic demand, last month wanted to hike the prices of sugar, citing soaring import costs resulting from spiraling prices.
Following the proposal, the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission analyzed the prices in the international market and the import costs after the sharp depreciation of the Taka against the US dollar.