The government is taking measures to penalize the unscrupulous onion traders responsible for the price hike. These handfuls of traders earned thousands of crores of taka by causing the suffering of regular citizens of the country. Bangladesh Competition Commission (BCC), a subsidiary of Commerce Ministry has already sent letters to several businessmen in connection to the matter, asking for detailed information of their activities in the last few months.
The government will take strict legal action against those found guilty of driving up the onion price in order to make unnatural profit. Legal steps have already been taken against 15 such dishonest onion traders and more are expected to be revealed as the investigation proceeds.
Only a handful of onion traders in the country are thought to be responsible for the abnormal price hike of onions. It is suspected that the masterminds behind the conspiracy number only around ten. They are thought to be wholesale onion traders hailing from the capital’s Shyambazar and Chattogram’s Khatunganj.
These dishonest traders were importing onions from China, Myanmar, Egypt and Pakistan in huge quantities and storing them to create an artificial price hike. They took advantage of the shortage created in the market when India banned its onion exports and thus the price of onions skyrocketed.
We applaud the government’s prompt proceedings in the matter as it has already caused thousands of middle and lower middle income people of the country to suffer. Many even had to resort to buying rotten onions as it is an essential commodity for Bengali kitchens.
In the future, the government must strictly monitor business importing large quantities of essential goods, particularly when supplies in the market are lower than usual. Strict action must be taken against those who create artificial crises in the market to prevent situations like the one we are facing now.
