The government has so far failed to procure soybean oil required for selling at a subsidized rate among 10 million families ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.
The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) floated tenders twice last month - one on May 12 and another on May 29 - for purchasing 25 million litres of such oil, but received no bid from the local refiners.
Sources said that local refiners were unwilling to bid as the rate mentioned by the state trading agency was much lower than their production cost.
The decision on selling essentials like soybean oil, sugar and lentil at subsidized rates to 10 million families ahead of the upcoming Eid-ul Azha was taken at a recent meeting held at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
TCB is supposed to implement the decision with its truck-sale drive across the country during the second half of this month (June 16-30).
TCB chairman Brig Gen Md Ariful Hassan PSC, however, said the drive will start from June 16 next with the items whatever they would be able to collect by then.
"A process needed to collect the essential items is underway. We will start the drive with the items as much as we can collect and the drive will continue until June 30," he added.
Soybean oil is expected to be sold at Tk110 per litre under the drive, according to a commerce ministry official, as compared to existing Tk198 per litre.
The refiners, meanwhile, submitted another proposal to the commerce ministry to raise the price of the cooking oil to Tk222 per litre.
Their proposal came at a time when international prices of the item were witnessing a notable decline.
According to indexmudi, a data portal that gathers facts and statistics from multiple sources, a tonne of soybean oil was traded between $1,722 and $1,727 in May, which is substantially lower from the average price of $1,947.51 per tonne in April and $1,960 in March this year.