Awami League leader behind rawhide price syndicate, smuggling to India: BNP

The BNP has blamed an ‘influential syndicate’ run by a ruling Awami League leader for the drop in prices of rawhide and skin of animals slaughtered on Eid-ul-Azha.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 13 August 2019, 02:03 PM
Updated : 13 August 2019, 02:28 PM

Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi also alleges that ‘syndicate’ is smuggling rawhide to India.

“A syndicate is working for the last few years to create a crisis over rawhide sales on the excuse of low prices in the global market,” the opposition party leader told the media in Dhaka on Tuesday.

“The ringleader of the syndicate is an Awami League leader. He allowed the traders to create the crisis and the government has not attempted to thwart them,” he alleged.

About half of the cattle slaughtered in a year in Bangladesh are sacrificed during Eid-ul-Azha.

Wholesalers buy the rawhide and skin of sacrificial animals from seasonal traders and sell these to tanners.

The government set the price of rawhide this year after a meeting with representatives from the traders and tanners.

But the traders, especially seasonal ones, allege they have not been getting fair prices during Eid.

The government left the prices unchanged this year. The price of cowhide was set at Tk 45 to 50 per square foot in Dhaka and at Tk 35-40 in the rest of the county. The price of goat hide was set at Tk 18-20 and Tk 13-15 for 'Baqra' goat hides across Bangladesh.

Seasonal rawhide traders blamed the syndicate as price of cow rawhide began to drop on the evening of Eid, on Monday.

Rizvi labelled the prices set by government as “humiliating” while briefing media at the BNP’s central office at Naya Paltan.

“The Ministry of Commerce is assisting the syndicate by setting humiliating prices for Eid cattle rawhide. The syndicate is smuggling a large number of rawhide to India after buying them cheap.”

The BNP leader also claimed the price of rawhide is 10 times lower than it was during the BNP government.

“The rawhide of a cow worth of Tk 80,000 is being sold at Tk 220 while the rawhide of a cow worth of Tk 100,000 is Tk 225. But prices of other products are rising,” he said.

Many people have “buried rawhide in a silent protest against the syndicate”, Rizvi claimed.