For the first time, the government has fixed the price of sugar to make stable the sugar market. From now on, as per the government fixed price, loose sugar will be sold at Tk 74 per kg and packet sugar at Tk 75 per kg.
The price was set at a meeting of sugar mill owners with the Commerce Ministry officials at the Secretariat on Thursday which will be effective from today (Friday).
Representatives of City Group, Meghna Group, Deshbandhu Group and other organizations were present at the meeting.
After the meeting, Additional Secretary (Import and Internal Trade) AHM Safiquzzaman told reporters that the price of sugar has gone up to Tk 80 per kg.
"We have reduced the price by Tk 5 per kg. From now on, per kg open sugar will be sold at Tk 74 per kg and packet sugar at Tk 75. The decision will take effect from Friday," he said.
"Traders had hiked sugar prices in the last two-three months on the pretext of raising import prices of some products. Earlier, the price was below Tk 70 per kg. The new price of sugar has been fixed at a meeting held at the Commerce Ministry in the morning," he added.
The price of loose sugar in the retail market has gone up to Tk 80 per kg and the price of sugar per kg packet has gone up to Tk 85. In this context, for the first time, the government fixed the maximum price of sugar.
According to the Bangladesh Food and Sugar Industry Corporation (BSFIC), the government has stopped production of six sugar mills this season. Till March 1, the total production of sugar in the remaining nine sugar mills was 41,648.60 tonnes.
Besides, the previous stock was 56,030.91 tonnes. In all, the company currently has only 48,796.04 tonnes of sugar in stock.
Of this, 10,797 tonnes of sugar are reserved for army, navy, BGB, fire service and mills ration.
Deducting the reserve amount for different government organizations, the salable reserves of sugar have come down to 37,998 tonnes, not inadequate to control the sugar market in the country as a whole.
A review of the BSFIC report found that the country's demand for sugar averaged 15-17 lakh tonnes. Of this, BSFIC supplied 1.5 to 2.5 lakh tonnes of sugar, including imported sugar under government mills and government management.
But with six government mills closed and no imports, more than 90 percent of the country's sugar demand is under the control of private mill owners.
