Reza Mahmud :
The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) started selling soybean oil and lentil with enhanced prices across the country from Wednesday.
Hiking prices of two major essential items, the TCB has angered the lower income group of people who used to consider the TCB truck sale as their most reliable source of living in these hard days.
The TCB had increased soybean oil by Tk 10, selling at Tk 110 per liter and lentils by Tk five, selling at Tk 60 per kg.
TCB sources said that its mobile trucks were selling sugar, lentils, onions and soybean oil from Wednesday morning. The sale will continue till November 28, its official sources said.
Meanwhile, the people of under privileged group who used to rely on the truck sale of the TCB across the capital have been astonished at the TCB’s latest decision..
“In a moment, the hiking of edible oil and lentil has really surprised us. We are totally shocked,” said Azizur Rahman, a street vendor of Motijheel area.
He said, “I bought two kgs of lentil and two liters of soybean oil with some other items from a TCB truck. But, I had to pay an extra amount of Tk 30 for the two commodities. It is an added burden on our budget.
Similarly, other buyers from South Goran, Rampura, Jatrabari and Khilgaon also expressed their frustrations at the price hiking of the two commodities.
Nasrin Sultana from South goran and Halima Khatun from Jatrabari area, said, “We were happy seeing TCB truck in sight, but when we learned price hiking of lentil and soybean oil, upset caught us. Any extra one taka payment is really a big burden for the people like us.”
Meanwhile, sellers of TCB products on trucks said the price hiking of two products had not been reflected seriously among the consumers.
“Buyers rushed and bought our products as done of the previous days. The price hiking of two items have not reduced buyers of our truck sells,” said Alam, from Rampura.
Meanwhile, Humayun Kabir, spokesman of TCB said, prices have been adjusted for edible oil and lentils with the markets.
“The market prices were higher than the TCB rate, as a result, chance of black marketing prevailed. So, the price adjustment has been taken” he said.
TCB has started the new phase of truck selling after paused several days.
According to TCB, a buyer can buy a maximum of two kg of sugar at Tk 55 per kg, two kg of lentils at Tk 60 per kg, two liters of bottled soybean oil at Tk 110 per litter and 2.5 kg of onion at per kg Tk 30 at a time.
