The commerce ministry has sought Tk586.4m from the Finance Division to meet the shortage of funds at the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
The state-run agency says the lack of a fixed allocation for its low price sales has been hampering its sales programme, and preventing it from controlling the price spiral of commodities.
“We have received a commerce ministry proposal for the immediate release of funds to off-set the fund shortage faced by TCB,” said a senior official of Finance Division.
Retail prices of essentials such as date, gram, sugar, lentil, cucumber, green chilli and brinjal in the kitchen markets of the capital have fallen significantly in the last two weeks.
“Finance ministry believes that the prices of essentials has declined due to market interventions by TCB during the month of Ramadan,” the Finance Division official said.
Experts however, said TCB’s sales are too small to impact price levels.
“The prices of essentials are declining due to the availability of commodities in kitchen markets,” said Mustafa K Mujeri, Director General of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.
Currently, TCB imports various commodities against a government-approved counter guarantee. The government gives TCB a counter guarantee worth Tk8bn every year, which allows TCB to take loans from banks at 12-16% interest and import commodities.
TCB started the sale of four commodities at low prices starting June 24, targeting the month of Ramadan.
At present the agency is selling gram at Tk58 per kg, red lentils at Tk70 per kg, sugar at Tk42 per kg and bottled and loose edible oil at Tk121 and Tk105 per litre, respectively. TCB was also planning to sell dates at low prices, but failed to collect the item.
TCB’s prices are usually Tk5-10 per unit less than the prices at which it procures the essential commodities.
“We have been demanding an allocation of Tk3bn per year as business capital to import commodities and distribute it in the market,” said Md Humayun Kabir, deputy senior executive officer of TCB.
Humayun Kabir said if they had been provided with the business capital, they could have avoided the costly loans from commercial banks.
