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The sugar prices are still much higher on the retail market, even though the government fixed the maximum retail price (MRP) of the essential on Thursday to control the rocketing trend of the commodity.
Following volatility in the sugar market, the government, after a meeting with the refiners, fixed prices of packed sugar at Tk 75 a kg and loose one at Tk 74 a kg on Thursday.
But the essential is still selling at Tk 80-88 a kg in the retail markets. Traders said they were still selling their old products that were bought at higher prices, forcing them to sell those at high prices.
Sugar prices increased by 16-18 per cent in the last three and a half weeks, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB). The price is 26 per cent higher than that of a year ago.
Kajal Saha, a grocer at Dhanmondi-15, told the FE that he had purchased sugar at Tk 78 a kg seven days back.
“I have the vouchers of two maunds (74.64 kgs) of sugar purchased from Moulvibazar a week back; who will compensate me if I sell them at Tk 74 a kg?” he said.
He said the companies didn’t supply packet sugar for the last one month as they had a plan to raise prices further.
During the period, many companies without licence supplied packet sugar, which is being sold at Tk 85-88 a kg, he said.
Mr Kajal said the grocers and other retailers should get at least one week to release their old products.
Biswajit Saha, director for corporate and regulatory affairs at City Group, said they would implement the government-fixed new rates soon.
Meanwhile, wholesalers in the city said the government should first implement the price in the mill-gates.
Md Abul Kalam, a Moulvibazar-based trader in the city, said MRP of sugar could be brought down to Tk 74 a kg only if mill-gate prices declined to below Tk 70 a kg.
“But it is still Tk 74 a kg there,” he said.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Vice President S M Nazer Hossain said without specifying maximum mill-gate price and wholesale prices, it was hard to implement the MRP of sugar, set by the government as TK 74-75 a kg.
He also urged the government to remove all kinds of import duties on the product for a few months to minimise sugar prices amid rocketing international prices which crossed US$ 500 a tonne in August.
He said the government’s import duty on sugar is still Tk 28 or more per kg – this should be removed.
Bangladesh consumes 2.2-2.5 million tonnes of sugar and molasses annually, of which it produces only 0.6 million tonnes.
Bangladeshi companies produced only 0.068 million tonnes of white sugar (mainly cane sugar) while leading refiners imported above 2.0 million tonnes in the last fiscal year.
(FE)
