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The price of soybean oil in the world market is downward. However, its price has been increased in the country. It has been hiked up to Rs 9 per liter citing the appreciation of the dollar – effective from Tuesday.

Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners and Banaspati Manufacturers Association, an organization of refining mill owners, has informed the Ministry of Commerce about the increase in prices.

Meanwhile, increasing the price of oil has caused anger among the buyers. They say that the price of oil has been increased amid high prices of all kinds of commodities in the market. This will increase the difficulty of managing expenses with income.

According to the decision of the mill owners, from now on open soybean oil per liter will be sold at consumer level at Tk 175, which was Tk 166 earlier. That is, the price of open soybeans is increasing by 9 rupees per liter. And every liter of bottled soybean oil will be sold at Tk 192, which was Tk 185 till now. That is, the buyer has to pay an additional 7 taka per liter bottle. A 5 liter bottle of soybean oil will be sold at Tk 945. In that case, the price will be 189 rupees per liter.

In the new decision, the price of soybeans has increased, but the price of palm oil has decreased by Tk 7 per liter. Palm oil will now be sold at Tk 145 per liter, which was earlier fixed at Tk 152.

Meanwhile, a review of the world market showed that the price of soybean oil per ton in June was 1751 dollars. On Tuesday it was $1516. That is, at this time, the price per ton has decreased by more than 235 dollars.

The secretary of the association, Nurul Islam Molla, said that although the price of oil in the international market has decreased slightly, the import cost has increased due to the increase in the value of the dollar. That is why we proposed to increase the price by 20 rupees per liter.

The association’s letter sent to the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission and the Ministry of Commerce announcing the price increase said that a proposal was sent on August 3 to adjust the price of soybean oil. Accordingly, the price increase was announced after discussions on August 17. The new price will be effective from August 23.

After visiting Nayabazar and Jinjira raw markets of capital city and talking to the sellers, it is known that open soybeans were sold at 182 taka per liter in the retail market, which is 7 taka more than the fixed price of 175 taka. Besides, every liter of bottled soyabean was sold at Tk. 192. And although the price of palm oil was reduced, it was sold at Tk 150-152 per liter at the previous rate, which was fixed at Tk 145.

Jinjira came to buy oil in raw market. Ismail said, traders increase the price of oil only if they want. But I am hearing the news in the media that the price of oil is falling in the world market. So how does the price of oil increase in our country? The government does not care about us at all. The prices of products are increasing one by one in the market. Our suffering will increase.

Sakkur Alam, a grocer at Jinjira raw market, said that there is no supply of bottled soybeans at the new price in the market. It will take a day or two for the supply situation to normalize. However, many unscrupulous sellers are selling old bottled soybeans at new prices, which is not desirable.

When asked, Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) president Golam Rahman said that the price of many products is increasing unnecessarily on the pretext of increasing the transport fare. The price of soybean oil was increased without bringing that price under control. This will increase the cost of buyers. So the concerned should take whatever steps can be taken to control the prices of commodities including oil. Sit down with the traders to determine the price of the product. Determining how much the cost of goods increases with transportation costs. The unscrupulous will not be able to take advantage of this.