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The industries ministry has turned down a proposal put forward by the commerce ministry to bring more e-commerce firms under its sugar supply arrangements, officials said.
The commerce ministry in a recent letter recommended sugar supply in favour of more e-commerce operators to facilitate their online trading, they added.
Considering the stock of sugar, the state-owned Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) had been supplying sugar to six online-based platforms--chaldal, sindabad, food panda, shop up, mokam.com and shodagor.com-- at government-fixed prices.
"Currently, it is not possible to include more e-commerce firms in the list as the government agency has an insufficient stock of sugar," the documents read.
The decision had been taken to keep the sugar market stable during the holy month of Ramadan which will start in mid-April.
Over 49,140 tonnes of sugar were stored in BSFIC as of March 16 last. Of the volume, over 29,750 tonnes were available for sales while 19,389 tonnes kept in the reserving sector till June next, according to the state-run agency's documents.
The BSFIC has been selling sugar on the stock basis to avoid overvaluation of sugar prices and artificial crisis in the local market, the documents said.
The country's annual demand for sugar is about 2.0 million tonnes. During the month of Ramadan, over 0.3 million tonnes of sugar are required for the country.
Some 5,129 tonnes of sugar had already been allocated in favour of 1,729 dealers and each of them had received 3.0 tonnes during holy Shab-e-Barat and upcoming Ramadan, the documents mentioned.
Presently, the agency has also been providing sugar to different super-shops as per their demand.
It has also been selling packaged sugar at consumer level from different state-owned sugar mills including one located in Chattogram.
Currently, all kinds of sugar have been selling at Tk 72-Tk 78 per kilogram in the domestic market.