TCB to clear 1,300 tonnes of unsold gram pulse

The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) hopes to clear off its unsold stock of 1,300 tonnes of gram pulse leftover from Ramadan when it starts a fresh open market sale (OMS) campaign in mid-May in Dhaka and other divisional cities.

“During the month of Ramadan, TCB imported 20,000 tonnes of gram pulse among other key essential commodities to sell at subsidised rates to one crore TCB cardholder families,” said Humayun Kabir, spokesperson of the TCB.

“However, due to late unloading and delivery from Chittagong port, about 1,300 tonnes of gram pulse remained unsold after Ramadan ended,” he added.

TCB will start open market sale (OMS) of some essential items, including edible oil, from mid-May in Dhaka and other divisional cities.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commerce is working to re-fix the prices of essentials, including edible oil, as their prices have gone up on the global market.

Apart from continuing the edible oil sale at Tk110 per litre through TCB trucks, the corporation is going to expand the selling at the same price to its one crore cardholder families from next month.

"We will sell the edible oil at Tk110 per litre to one crore TCB cardholder families from June," Senior Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh told BSS on Saturday.

The government has planned to import edible oil directly through the TCB, he said, adding that Bangladesh missions abroad have already been contacted for procuring edible oil through the state-run corporation.

The government is trying to ensure supply of the edible oil at a lower price to the countrymen since the whole world witnessed a hike in global crude edible oil rates recently.

Earlier, Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners and Vanaspati Manufacturers Association increased the price of bottled soya bean oil by Tk38 a litre to Tk198 per litre on Thursday.