Serving of inaccurate figures on supply-demand has caused the recent “artificial” crisis of onion, resulting in the swindling of huge money from consumers, commerce ministry officials told a parliamentary watchdog Wednesday.
The officials, however, did not refer to the role of illegal business syndicates that are often blamed for hiking price of essentials every year.
While raising questions about the price hike of onion, the parliamentary standing committee on commerce ministry at its meeting suggested the government taking precautionary measures to stop smuggling of onions because the price in India was higher than Bangladesh.
ABM Abul Qasem, chairman of the standing committee, however, told the Dhaka Tribune that the businessmen did some “manipulation” in hiking the price of onion, showing pretext of poor production in India, the principal exporter of onion to Bangladesh.
“We are convinced that we did not have accurate information about supply, demand and stock, resulting in the artificial crisis,” Quasem told the Dhaka Tribune in his office after the meeting.
He said the price came down to Tk47 per kilogram from Tk80 because the government imported 5,000 tonnes of onion from Myanmar and other countries and sold it in the open market. That move reduced the price of onion overnight, he claimed.
“The businessmen had some hand in the manipulation of price,” said Quasem, whose brother was a leading businessman in Chittagong.
As the chief accounting officer of the ministry, Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed answered the queries put forward by the lawmakers who attended the meeting. Some of the times he kept the microphone off, with the intention of not allowing his comments go on record.
The annual demand for onion in Bangladesh is estimated to be 2.3 million tonnes. Agriculture ministry figures show that 1.94 million tonnes of onion was produced in the country during the last fiscal. The central bank said 500,000 tonnes of onion was imported during the period.
“There should not be any crisis of onions. This means that the information provided by the agriculture ministry and the central bank is not right,” said a high-ranked official of the commerce ministry.
He, however, did not make any mention of the business syndicates, who allegedly hoard different consumer goods from time to time to give rise to indiscriminate price hikes.
The chairman said the price of onion in India was Rs67 per kg while the price in Bangladesh was Tk47.
“Such a situation may result in the smuggling of onion from Bangladesh. We have to stop it,” he said, suggesting that the government must take adequate measures to prevent similar crisis before Eid-ul-Azha in October.