TCB stocking up on other products to widen services before Ramadan

The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh or TCB, the government's trading arm, is building supplies of gram, pulse, sugar and soybean oil to sell them at fair prices in Ramadan amid escalating prices of essential commodities.

Children from poor families queue with grown-ups for goods sold by a dealer of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh at cheaper rates. A child leaves the queue after buying the products outside the railways ministry on Wednesday, Feb 9, 2022. Photo: Mahmud Zaman Ovi

A meeting of the cabinet standing committee on government purchase okayed the proposal to buy the four items for TCB on Thursday.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said, “The TCB is a backbone of our economy. Production is important, and so is sending products to the consumers when needed.

“Lack of goods doesn’t cause crisis in today’s world, but not supplying them on time does. And TCB is playing an important role at the moment. We’re increasing its capacity.”

He spoke about sending the services from the government agency to all unions of the country. “I want to send out TCB products to 10 million families this Ramadan.”

The pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war caused prices of daily necessities to soar in the international market, the effects of which seeped into Bangladesh.

In an effort to balance things out, the government has removed VAT on several products at different levels and moved to increase the capacity of TCB distribution.

The meeting approved purchase of 7,000 tonnes of sugar separately from Meghna Sugar Refinery and City Sugar Industries at Tk 553 million each, Cabinet Division Additional Secretary Md Zillur Rahman Chowdhury said.

The price of each kg, including VAT and tax, stands at Tk 79.

The Sena Kalyan Sangstha, Blue Sky Enterprise and Rubi Food Products will supply 10,000 tonnes of gram at Tk 814 million, each kg costing Tk 81.40.

The meeting also approved purchase orders for 19,500 tonnes of pulses at Tk 2.11 billion at Tk 108.5 per kg and 7.11 million litres of soybean oil at Tk 168 per kg.

The Islamic month of fasting may start on Apr 3 and end on May 2, subject to the sighting of the moon.

The committee also green-lighted a proposal from the Department of Disaster Management to directly buy 60 multiple accessible rescue boats from Dockyard and Engineering Works Ltd.

Payra Port’s Coal/Bulk Terminal Construction Project was also dropped from the public-private Partnership or PPP list.