Edible oil prices rise again
Edible oil prices have risen for a third amount of time in two months, which makes it even more complicated for low-income groups to cover the fundamental cooking ingredient amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
"The retail price of edible oil has been raised by Tk 5 per litre," said Md Shafiul Ather Taslim, director for finance and operations at TK Group, a respected importer and processor of essential goods.
As such, local importers and processors hiked the retail price of branded soybean oil to Tk 144 from Tk 139 per litre while the price tag on a five-litre bottle was set at Tk 685, up from Tk 660 recently.
Similarly, the cost of loose soybean oil rose to Tk 122 per litre from Tk 117 while loose palm oil prices have already been fixed at Tk 113 per litre, up from Tk 109 last month.
The new prices arrived to influence on April 25.
On April 19, the Vanaspati Manufacturers Association, a link of edible oil importers and manufacturers, sent a letter to the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission to see them of their decision to raise edible oil prices.
In the letter, they asked the commerce ministry to create the price of soybean oil at Tk 150 per litre due to rising prices in the international market. But considering the situation during Ramadan, the association fixed the retail price of branded soybean oil at Tk 144.
Munshi Shahabuddin Ahmed, chairman of the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission, said they received the letter and forwarded it to the commerce ministry because of its decision on the proposal.
However, he declined to speak further on the problem.
With the new prices, the price of edible oil has soared for a third amount of time in about 8 weeks, putting pressure on consumers who already are suffering from a lack of income amid the Covid-19 crisis.
The last time the government had raised edible oil prices was on March 15, before that your retail price of unpacked palm oil was Tk 104 per litre, unpacked soybean oil Tk 115 per litre, and canned soybean oil Tk 135 per litre while a five-litre bottle Tk 630. An exclusive jobholder seeking anonymity said this increase in price would put him under more pressure.
"It has become difficult to create ends meet as a result of skyrocketing prices of daily essentials through the lockdown and Ramadan," he said, adding that in such situations, an additional price hike is merely another blow.
Ghulam Rahman, president of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, said the rise in oil prices would put ordinary consumers in more trouble beneath the current circumstances.
"So, the federal government should reduce or subsidise the import tax on edible oil to keep prices within the purchasing capacity of common people," he added.
The advance tax recently exempted by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) will never be effective in containing prices, according to Biswajit Saha, director of corporate and regulatory affairs at City Group, one of the country's biggest commodity importers and processors.
Refiners have been demanding the imposition of value added tax (VAT) on the import stage of the worthiness chain instead of on production and distribution as it is not possible for distributors to keep transaction records based on the rules.
But since VAT is charged at all three stages, the responsibility increases for consumers, he said.
"So, removing the tax on imports will be helpful," Saha said.
According to revenue officials, the indirect tax was imposed to bring the sector beneath the tax net.
The City Group official continued to say that edible oil prices are unstable in the global market as a result of coronavirus situation.
"We recently bought crude degummed soybean oil at $1,280 per tonne. As of this price, our costing stands at Tk 162 per litre," he added.
The World Bank's data on commodity prices implies that the price of soybean oil has risen sharply in international markets in the last couple of months.
Soybean oil prices increased four % to $ 1,164 per tonne in March from $1,121 per tonne in February. In January, the price of soybean oil was $ 1,101 per tonne.
