Agora, Bengal Meat fined as retailers ‘reject’ beef price set by city corporation

Mobile courts have fined super shop Agora and Bengal Meat for selling beef at prices higher than those set by the city corporations in Dhaka.

Dhaka South City Corporation or DSCC conducted drives led by Executive Magistrate Mizanur Rahman with five mobile courts in different areas on Wednesday to keep the market stable during the Ramadan.

Beef sellers in these areas were charging customers between Tk 25 and Tk 75 more than the city corporation-fixed Tk 525 per kg of the key source of protein.

Selling meat at the fixed price will lead to losses as they bought cattle at higher prices, the traders claimed.

They, however, started selling beef at the fixed price after the city corporation launched the drive.

In Kakrail, a mobile court fined Agora Tk 50,000 for selling foreign beef at Tk 525 a kg while the fixed rate was Tk 500.

Officials at the Department of Livestock and Fisheries checked whether the meat was sourced from local cattle or foreign cattle, Magistrate Mizanur said.

Sirajul Islam Shaon, in charge of the Agora branch, claimed they were selling meat of local cattle, but the mobile court alleged it was of Indian cows.

Bengal Meat’s Moghbazar outlet was fined Tk 50,000 for selling beef in two thresholds – with less bone at Tk 635 per kg and more bone at Tk 525, which is a breach of the rules, Mizanur said.

“We buy premium category meat at Tk 600 per kg. We can’t sell it at Tk 525,” Bengal Meat Chief Marketing Officer Asaduzzaman Khan said.

The company was selling meat at different categories and prices following customer demand, he claimed.

“We have nothing to do if the government thinks it cannot be done,” he added.

The five mobile courts fined 13 other shops a total of Tk 98,000 for selling substandard commodities and charging higher prices than those fixed by the city corporation.

The city corporations on Monday fixed the prices of cattle meat for the Ramadan after discussions with the traders.

“The traders cannot sell meat at the fixed prices as there is no progress on implementation of our demands,” Meat Traders Association leader Robiul Alam alleged.

The meat traders had earlier claimed they would have been able to sell the products at much lower prices had they not been “forced to pay extra charged as fees for lease at Gabtoli cattle market”.