The edible oil companies are saying that they did not raise the price and are supplying oil at the rates specified on the bottles. The supply of edible oil is normal yet the price has seen a rise.
A source of whole sale traders say that the special discount has been discontinued.
Meanwhile, government and edible oil company representatives say there is no logical reason for the price to go up.
Bangladesh Bank has said that the import based letter of credit (L/C) process for edible oil is also normal.
The Bangladesh Tariff Commission is investigating to find who raised the price of edible oil.
The price of all kinds of soya bean has risen by Tk 3 to Tk 5 per litre but the price of open Soya bean has risen the most. Depending on spots, open soya bean oil is being sold for Tk 80 per litre which was Tk 75 or Tk 78 in the past.
The price of 5 litre soya bean oil bottles by Teer and Fresh have Tk 500 as the rate while Rupchada is Tk 530.
Only 15 days ago, such bottles were sold for Tk 425 to whole sale traders by manufacturers, which were then sold at Tk 430 to Tk 435. Later, the companies increased the rate to whole sale traders to Tk 452. These were then sold to retail traders at Tk 470.
To find out the reason for the rise in price, tariff commission chairman Nur ur Rahman, had meetings with officials of leading oil manufacturing companies who said that the price of soyabean was not raised.
Nur ur Rahman, said: “We are trying to find out the reason for the hike in price.”
Meanwhile, City Group chairman, Amitabh Chakravarty, added: “There’s no reason for the rise of the price of edible oil. We did not raise the price.”
Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Dr Zafar Uddin said: “The market is being monitored by several government agencies; steps will be taken against those trying to manipulate the market.”
In the next fiscal year, 158,000 tonnes of soyabean will be produced over 82,000 hectares of land; at the same time, soyabean import will rise by 3.85 percent and stand at 1.35 million tonnes. As per report, next year, edible oil import will rise to 2.8 million tonnes. Of this soyabean is 950,000 and palm oil 1.85 million tonnes.
As per Bangladesh Bank report, the cost for edible oil usage in 2017-18 was Tk 144.48 billion.