Tofail claims price of rice, onion normal
Commerce minister Tofail Ahmed on Monday claimed in Jatiya Sangsad that the prices of rice and onion have now become normal in the market.
‘Rice and onion prices are Tk 55 to Tk 60 per kg in the market,’ Tofail Ahmed told the House while responding to a question of treasury bench member of the parliament Subed Ali Bhuiyan.
The day’s business began at about 4:30pm with speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.
Replying a supplementary question of the lawmaker, Tofail said the country experienced a flood for long time in the northern region of the country. That is why, the price of rice increased in the market. The price of onion also increased in India due to flood there.
Food minister Qamrul Islam claimed that the price of rice dropped by Tk 4 to Tk 7 per kilogram.
‘The price of rice has been dropped by Tk 4 to Tk 7 per kilogram at present while the price of flour is at the lowest rate,’ he said while responding to a question of reserved seat lawmaker Lutfa Taher.
‘At present, the prices of food grains remain static,’ he said.
Responding to another question of treasury bench lawmaker M Abdul Latif, the minister said the government does not provide any subsidy in collecting the food grains.
‘For collecting the food grains, the government fixed the rate of paddy, rice and wheat by keeping a balance with the production cost,’ he said.
The food minister said the government set a target to procure 16 lakh tonnes of rice and 2 lakh tonnes of wheat from local market.
Of the target, the government had already collected 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice and the rest of the amount would be procured by June next, he added.
But in the revised budget, the government set a target to procure 13.37 lakh tonnes of rice and 1 lakh tonne of wheat.
According to Trading Corporation of Bangladesh data, the price of ordinary rice was Tk 58-62 per kg, while the price of onion was Tk 65-75 a kg in Dhaka on Monday.
While the price of rice was Tk 44-48 a kg and onion Tk 20-30 a kg in Dhaka on January 15 in 2017.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
