Govt to ask monitoring teams to expedite their activities

The government will ask the teams monitoring the prices of essentials to further expedite their activities in the coming days, officials said.

On the other hand, a meeting will be held with the country's traders, wholesalers and retailers at the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) soon to review the prices of essential items in the city's kitchen markets, they added.

Commerce minister Tofail Ahmed asked the commerce secretary to take necessary steps to strengthen the activities of the monitoring teams on prices of essential items after the Japanese envoy in Dhaka made a courtesy call on him at the MoC on Wednesday last.

"We often sit to evaluate the activities of the 14 teams monitoring the prices of essential items in the capital city. We will direct the teams soon to be more careful about their respective duties and activities throughout the year," a high official of the commerce ministry told the FE on Thursday.

Earlier, the commerce ministry formed the teams to check the surge in the prices of essential commodities in the capital city.

Replying to a question on the price situation, the commerce minister told the meeting that the prices of essential commodities did not go up and remained stable due to steps taken by the government.

However, he admitted that the prices of one or two items might go up for the time being due to flood or rain.

A meeting with the country's retailers and wholesale traders will be held soon to review the supply, prices and stock of essential items, he said.

Earlier, the traders had assured the government that the prices of essential items would not go up.

"Consumers rights protection department is now active across the country to ensure the consumers' rights. We expect that the prices of essential items will not go up before or during the upcoming holy Eid-ul-Azha," he added.

Prices of fish, spices and vegetables showed a significant rise last week compounding the sufferings of consumers, already buffeted by high costs of essentials. Traders attributed the hike to frequent rains in the last few days, which disrupted normal transportation, causing supply crunch.

Prices of onion, ginger, garlic, chilli also witnessed a further hike last week.

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