Home ›› 10 Mar 2023 ›› Front
With the month of Ramadan coming closer quickly, the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) on Thursday started the first phase of essential food sales for 1 crore low-income card-holding families across the country.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi inaugurated the first phase of the sale at a programme in the Tejgaon area of Dhaka in the morning.
The first phase will continue till March 30. The second phase will start on April 1 and will continue till April 15, said TCB Chairman Brig Gen Md Ariful Hassan.
During the one-and-half-month-long sale, people will be able to buy sugar at Tk 60 per kg, lentils at Tk 70 per kg, soybean oil at Tk 110 per kg and chickpea at Tk 50 per kg. Also, dates will be sold only in Dhaka at Tk 100 per kg.
TCB sources said that they generally sell products at regular intervals but for Ramadan, they are selling at comparatively smaller intervals so that poor people can get their daily essentials easily.
In general time, they sell three items but now they are selling five with chickpeas and date being the new items, they said.
“The price hike is a global phenomenon right now and our country is also affected by it. Considering that, we have made arrangements to supply these food items to the poorer section of the people,” Tipu said. As Ramadan is approaching, the essential items will be sold to the people in two phases before Eid-ul-Fitr, he said and urged everyone involved in the sale to ensure that the cardholders get the food items accurately.
One TCB cardholder will be able to buy one kg of sugar, two kg of lentils, two litres of soybean oil and one kg of chickpeas at a time. Also, only the cardholders in the capital will be able to buy one kg of dates.
However, sources said that TCB has a shortage of dates as they could not collect the dates from the local market due to the disrupted imports caused by the dollar crisis. Since TCB failed to collect enough dates to sell across the country at a subsidised rate, it will sell dates in Dhaka city only. According to the corporation, the cardholders will be able to buy these groceries at dealer shops and other designated permanent infrastructures by showing their family cards across the country.
Designated shops or dealers, in collaboration with the city corporations, district and upazila administrations, will conduct the OMS sale programme at a scheduled date and time.
TCB has urged the dealers to collect the food items before 3pm every day.
In Dhaka city, the TCB chairman said that around 13 lakh TCB cardholders from lower-income families will get these commodities.
