Dhaka, Barishal people now eligible for TCB family cards

The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh has added Dhaka and Barishal cities among the areas it would distribute essential commodities at a subsidised rate through family cards.

The government agency earlier decided to distribute commodities at a subsidised rate through family cards across the country except for Dhaka and Barishal.

The TCB officials said they are now working on preparing family cards for 11 lakh poor families in Dhaka and three lakh in Barisal city.

They will start distributing soybean oil, sugar and lentils at low prices to the cardholders across the country from June after family cards are reached to these 14 lakh families in Dhaka and Barishal.

The government took an initiative to introduce family cards before the past Ramadan and listed one crore families across the country.

Already 85.9 lakh family cards have been distributed across the country excepting Dhaka and Barishal city corporation areas, said Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh.

He said the city corporations in Dhaka and Barishal are compiling the list of the 11 lakh families.

Tapan said the price of soybean oil might increase slightly for the family cardholders if the current price of soybean oil remains unchanged. “Any decision in this regard is yet to be made," he added.

The TCB had announced that it would sell sugar at Tk 55 per kg, lentils at Tk 65 per kg and soybean oil at Tk 110 per litre from May 16 through their regular programme of selling commodities through open trucks. But suddenly the TCB postponed the move on Monday night.

The TCB in a statement said they postponed the move as family cards for Dhaka and Barishal are yet to be prepared.

Speaking at a function at the ministry on Monday, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said the decision to sell TCB products was postponed at the instructions of the prime minister. Sales will start next month, he said.

As prices of various commodities, including edible oil, increased in the market after Ramadan, there remained chances that queues at TCB's open trucks would get longer.

Some policymakers feared that the long queues would deprive many people and they might have to return home empty-handed. To thwart such a possibility, the government has decided not to sell TCB products in
open trucks.