Ahead of the month of Ramadan when the prices of essentials usually shoot up, the Dhaka South City Corporation fixed the price of beef, but its directive did not clear the prices of other parts, like liver.

Traders say prices vary over cuts as well as for parts like, liver and brain; that is the standard practice, not only in Bangladesh but across the world.

On Wednesday, a mobile court raided an outlet of super shop Meena Bazar in the capital. The Shantinagar outlet was slapped a fine of Tk 100,000 for charging different prices for beef and liver.

“Meena Bazar has been fined for different prices for beef and liver. They have to be the same,” said Executive Magistrate Mohammad Mashiur Rahman, who led the drive.

However, beef and liver are not sold at the same prices across Dhaka.

“There are several other parts other than the meat. And liver is a bit pricy as the demand is high,” Khalilur Rahman, a meat trader in Dhaka’s Khilgaon kitchen market, told Bangla Tribune.

Meat Traders’ Association Secretary General Rabiul Alam echoed.

“If you get like a 100 kg of meat from a cow, the liver will weigh a maximum of 5 kg. Naturally, the demand is high, so it’s pricier,” he told Bangla Tribune.

“And the city corporation did not fix the price for other parts. If they had, we would have benefitted from it. Because there are several other parts which are sold at a way lower rate,” he added.

Meat trader Gias Uddin, who runs his business in Dhaka’s Banasree, says that they can’t charge the same price for liver.

“We run a business and pay taxes. We are selling at the price fixed by the city corporation. But it can’t be same for liver as then all the customers will want it. How will we manage that?”

He says prices vary depending on the cut. “But still we sell at the price set by the city corporation— Tk 450 per kg.”

On Monday, super shop Shwapno’s Banani outlet was fined by Tk 1 million for charging more than the maximum retail price.

At a media call the next day, its Executive Director Sabbir Hasan Nasir said, “We have different prices for regular and boneless meat. That’s the practice across the world. They can’t be same.”

Social media users echoed.

Bonn-based journalist Arafatul Islam, who works for Deutsche Welle, took to the Facebook to share the practice in Germany.

Speaking to Bangla Tribune later, he said that prices depend on cut in German super shops and that’s the case for liver as well.

“Even calves’ liver cost more than those from older cattle. Beef is usually boneless here. People like us who want bones, get it from Arab or Turk butchers. ”

Social media user Mahmud Bin Alam said that he found the move to fine for different prices for beef and liver as ‘unusual.’

“Meat and liver are different, so the prices should vary. If a cow weighs a 100 kg then the liver will be like a maximum of 7 kg. So, it’s pricier. That’s the case across the world,” he wrote in a Facebook post.