No shortage of products ahead of Ramadan: Finance Minister

Finance Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali said that there is no shortage of products for upcoming holy Ramadan.

 Strict action will be taken against anyone who tries to increase the price by taking advantage of the situation.

He said this to reporters at the end of the inter-ministerial emergency meeting held at the meeting room of the Finance Ministry on Sunday.
Finance Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali presided over the meeting while, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumdar, Agriculture Minister Abdus Shahid, Fisheries and Livestock Minister Md Abdur Rahman, State Minister for Commerce Ahsanul Islam Titu, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rauf Talukder and other senior officials were present.

He said that the government has implemented various measures to control commodity prices, and positive outcomes are anticipated soon. The strategy includes increasing the supply of daily commodities in the market, preventing hoarders and syndicates manipulation, and swiftly controlling commodity prices through the importation of essential goods.

The Finance Minister said, "We have seen the latest situation, there is no shortage. Items needed during Ramadan. There is no reason to worry. Shortage also has no reason. Some quarters are trying how to destabilize the situation. Will try to take advantage of where the market economy is operating."

He said, "The government is doing the work to maintain the price level. We think there is no reason to worry.

 If necessary, we will move to more drastic measures. I will take punitive action if necessary, I will not spare anyone."

So what is the reason for the emergency meeting? When the journalists asked such questions, the finance minister said, naturally, after the election, everyone is saying what are you doing, what did you do?
Your target is only Ramadan? In response to such a question, he said, not only Ramadan, people are worried about Ramadan, thats why.

After raising the price of rice, the government has taken action, after informing about this, the Finance Minister said, "we are taking action. Discussing, watching. you see The price has already come down."

Traders are now picking potatoes from the land with trucks. They are profiting. The Finance Minister said, "We are going to take action on the question of monopoly in the market, what measures are being taken there."

On the question of how many days the price of goods will decrease, the Finance Minister said that it is never possible to say that way.

On the question of whether to give priority to import or not, the Finance Minister said, if necessary, import should be done, nothing like that has happened yet.

Meanwhile, Minister of Fisheries and Livestock Abdur Rahman said, "The main thing is that there is no shortage of daily necessities in the market. But there are middlemen, there are opportunists who manipulate. We are in such danger because of an artificial crisis of that class. So you can be assured from today, the majors we will take hard, inshallah we hope we can reach our goal soon."

On the question of who is manipulating the market, whether they have been identified or not, Abdur Rahman said, "I am definitely finding out. Getting that whole thing out is time-consuming. We are discussing. Actions will be taken against them when the identification can be confirmed. Legal action will be taken, license will be canceled, their business license will be stopped."

On what basis do you say there is no shortage of Ramadan products? In response to such a question, Abdur Rahman said, "All the statistics are there, there is no shortage in anything. I don want to give you (journalist) the details of those statistics for tactical reasons. It is one thing to speculate, one thing to suspect, one thing to list suspicions, another thing to make it clear. Only when that clarification is done can it be identified who is involved. You have to be patient for that."

In response to a question about the dollar crisis, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rauf Talukder said that the LCs of 8 products that we import from Rajman from July to January last year were 10-15 percent more than that.

 The problem of opening LC is not fixed. The products are expected to reach the country on time. If there is no middleman problem then there is no reason to increase the price. There will be no shortage of products.