Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) is apparently going to face a substantial loss from the stock of 20 lakh liters of edible oil that remained unsold for one year, official sources said.
TCB procured the commodity a year ago but failed to sale it to the dealers due to complexity about price fixation. The value of the commodity is Tk 25 crore.
The dealers are not interested to buy the commodity from TCB as the selling price of our commodity was higher than the market price, a senior TCB official told The New Nation yesterday.
According to him, the average cost of per liter soybean was Tk122 but the present market price of the product now stands at Tk 96. “Why dealers will buy from us when market price remains low,” he added
He added: TCB already revised price of the edible oil twice with the approval of commerce ministry to convince the dealers, fixing the rate at Tk 108 per liter. But the dealers not buy soybean on the revised price as the products are already close to the date of expiry.
TCB spokesman Humayun Kabir said, “TCB is worried about the stock of edible oil because it will be damaged soon. We will have to damage more than 1.5 lakh liters of soybean by this month and another 1.25 lakh by March this year due to the date of expiry. The date of expiry of rest of the 17.63 lakh liters was fixed by July this year.”TCB procured the oil from S Alam Group, he added.
If the soybean remained unsold, the financial loss of TCB would be more than Tk 25 crore, TCB chairman Brigadier General Sarwar Zahan told The New Nation yesterday.
“We have already sent a letter to the ministry for the further price cut and hope will get positive response from it. Once we get the nod from the ministry, it will prevent the loss of TCB,” he added.
Admitting the matter, Commerce Secretary Mahbub Alam said, “Yes, I got another letter from TCB to revise the price. But this is not the proper time to revise as the product has not much time to preserve. TCB should take the initiatives by convincing their dealers.”
Disturbed by the TCB’s indecision, TCB had to realize this situation more than six months ago. They only hold the stock for making profit.
Jewel Ahmed, president of TCB Dealers Association said, “We are unable to buy the stock even the lower rate as the expiry date of the commodity is very close. If the dealers take delivery of the oil and sell it to the market, it could leave damaging impact for the consumers’ health.
