Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Executive Magistrate Palash Kumar Basu has fined 11 Karwan Bazar wholesalers for overcharging customers.
They were fined a total of Tk2.20 lakh during a raid conducted by RAB on Tuesday morning.
Executive Magistrate Palash said: “We have told them that they will be sent to jail if they are caught overcharging again, defying the price fixed by the government.”
“The price list ought to be visible on a board in front of the stores, but no price list was found or maintained by most of them,” he said.
“By comparing the buying and selling invoices of these sellers we found that they were asking for two to threefold more,” the magistrate added.
He said ginger was being sold at Tk220-300 whereas they were supposed to sell for only Tk150, adding that the buyers were seen returning empty handed due to the price hike.
Magistrate Palash said: “We will conduct our raid every day in Ramadan to oversee the market prices. We will focus on tomato, dates, lemons, and especially food items needed for iftar.”
Representatives of the Department of Agricultural Marketing, Bangladesh Standards & Testing Institution (BSTI), and Ministry of Commerce were present during the raid.
