7 shops fined for selling sugar at exorbitant prices

DNCRP has fined seven shops at Mirpur in Dhaka total Tk 50,000 for selling sugar at higher than the government-fixed rates.

The Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection or DNCRP has fined seven shops at Mirpur in Dhaka total Tk 50,000 for selling sugar at higher than the government-fixed rates.

DNCRP Assistant Director Zannatul Ferdaus led the drive on Shah Ali Market, Shah Smrity Market and City Corporation Market following complaints filed through the directorate’s hotline on Saturday amid what the traders said was a supply crunch.

Kamal Ahmed, the owner of Tonmoy Enterprise at Shah Smrity Market, said he could not buy sugar from the mills since Oct 16.

But Zannatul said she found in the shop’s ledger that Kamal bought 320 sacks of sugar on Oct 19 and sold those to a single trader at Tk 4,800 per sack of 50 kg, or Tk 96 per kg – a wholesale rate higher than the government-fixed retail price of Tk 90 a kg.

Kamal, however, could not provide any papers on purchasing the sugar. He was fined Tk 10,000 for lying.

Similar irregularities were found in the other shops fined during the drive.

The government raised the prices of sugar in the first week of October in an apparent move to catch up with the market as the traders were already selling at higher rates than the previously fixed prices.

The price of refined but loose sugar was fixed at Tk 90 a kg in the retail markets while the price of packaged sugar was set at Tk 95.

Sugar prices skyrocketed in Dhaka by the end of last week after most stores ran out of the product. Retailers who still had the products were charging customers up to Tk 110 per kg on Friday.

Importers and refiners blamed a shortage of dollars for import and a lack of gas to refine the sweetener for the crisis.

The annual demand for sugar in Bangladesh is 2.5 million tonnes. The local mills produce only 100,000 tonnes and the rest is imported.