Chittagong Bureau :
A mobile court of Chittagong district administration on Wednesday fined two officials of a business organisation in the city’s main commercial hub Khatunganj area with Tk 20 lakh for realising excessive prices of sugar from the retailers.
Sources said this whole sale trader was selling sugar at Tk.58 per kg .
Executive magistrate Tahmilur Rahman conducted the mobile court at Katunganj, the main business hub of the port city, and fined the Managing director of Meer Group Abdus Salam and its Sales Manager Jan-e-Alam Tk 10 lakh each. District Administration sources said the business firm bought sugar at TK 46.80 per kilogram from a sugar factory but was selling it in the wholesale market at TK 58.50 per kilogram. The mobile court also sealed off the office and godown of Meer Group during the drive.
District administration officials Abdus Samad and Hasan Bin Ali, Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) member Jannatul Ferdous and a huge number of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) members were present during the drive.
Mentionable that Hajji Mir Ahmed Traders of the port city’s biggest wholesale market at Khatunganj was making Tk 12 profit per kg. It meant it was making an extra profit of Tk 24 million daily from the sale of 2,000 tonnes, according to the mobile court.
Executive Magistrate Tahmilur Rahman, who led the court, told the media that the firm, owned by one Abdus Salam’s Mir Group, controls the entire wholesale of S Alam Sugar Mill in chittagong .They buys 80 percent of the total sugar productions of sugar directly from the mills. He also buys the remaining amount of sugar from the mills through his agents,” the magistrate said.
RAB-7 Squad Commander Jalal Uddin, who assisted the drive, said the employees of the firm did not cooperate with the RAB and were ‘rude’ as well.
The magistrate said the owner of the firm signed a bond, promising not to make more than Tk 2 profit per kg.Mir Group Managing Director Abdus Salam alleged his firm was actually buying the sugar at Tk 50 per kg, not 46.”We also have to pay Tk 4 as labour charge and transport fare for every kg.
Then the profit comes to Tk 4 per kg,” he claimed.He said the punishment was caused by a “misunderstanding”.
Four other wholesalers buy sugar from Hajji Mir Ahmed Traders.
The traders are are M Hossain Traders, MG Trading, M Hossain Brothers and Bismillah Group . Local sources said Mir Group and the four other wholesale traders of Khatungong are dominating the sugar market of chittagong since long.
