The prices of eggs and broiler chickens have been increasing in the market for quite some time. Various organizations including the Ministry of Commerce along with the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection have stepped into the field to control this situation. When the Ministry of Commerce’s market monitoring task force raided the capital’s Kaptan market on Wednesday, the egg traders closed their shops and ran away. Apart from this, on this day, 116 traders across the country including Dhaka were fined more than 7 lakh rupees for keeping the price of eggs high. The price of eggs in the market is slightly decreasing.
Traders say egg prices have started to come down due to recommendations for removal of import duties, import permits and market raids. Three-four days ago, at the retail level, per dozen farm red eggs were sold at Tk 165 to Tk 175. However, a dozen of eggs were sold at 155 to 165 rupees yesterday. That is, 10 rupees have decreased in dozen.
The National Board of Revenue has recently withdrawn the existing duty on import of eggs to control prices. At the same time, four and a half million pieces of eggs have been allowed to be imported. Besides, the government has also strengthened market supervision. As a part of this yesterday, the market monitoring task force formed by the Ministry of Commerce went to Kaptan Bazar under the leadership of Executive Magistrate Umar Farooq of Dhaka District Administration. During this time, the retail shopkeepers also hide the eggs. Many claim that they do not have eggs in storage. Some ran away from the shop on hearing the news of the raid. At that time, two businessmen were fined 7000 taka for keeping the price high by raiding the broiler chicken shop and not having a price list.
Yesterday, three companies were fined Tk 38,000 in the kitchen market of Karwan Bazar in Dhaka and Tk 12,500 were fined to some companies in Mohammadpur Krishi Market.
A fine of lakhs of taka for overcharging in Chittagong
A team of the Directorate of Consumer Affairs fined an organization Tk 1 lakh after raiding Pahartali market in Chittagong city yesterday for the crime of overcharging eggs. Mohammad Faiz Ullah, deputy director of the department, who led the operation, said that an egg shop called Jannat Poultry was fined Tk 1 lakh for the crime of selling eggs at a higher price than the prescribed price.
