Ramadan, the holy month for the Muslim, begins today. Customers said the prices of the essentials already have been illegally hiked. The ill-practice has seemingly become usual ahead of and during Ramadan, they claimed while the traders defended that they have hiked the prices as the wholesale market goes high. Banker Rezwanul Islam came to Hatirpool kitchen market for shopping yesterday. "I came for weekly shopping last week when the market was calm. But the price of every essential has been up today."
"I had to pay more for gram, sugar and vegetables," he said commenting that such malpractice is only possible in Bangladesh. Why the prices soar up on the eve of Ramadan, when asked a trader of the market Md Arman Hossen said that they had to pay more in the wholesale markets.
"As we are bound to bring the essentials to the market with a hiked price, how we can keep the normalcy," he questioned and hinted at the government's failure even before the holy month begins. Green chili price increased 100% to Tk 50 a kilogram on Saturday from the previous day's price of Tk 25.The correspondent found the price hikes of the vegetables and groceries during a visit to Karwan Bazar kitchen market.
Prices of aubergine, lentil, onion, rice, sugar, garlic, ladies finger and puffed rice went up in the markets despite the commerce minister's warning against "price manipulation" during the month of Ramadan. The price of onion increased up to Tk10 a kg, while the puffed rice price went up by Tk 7 and garlic by Tk 10-Tk15 compared to just one day ago, according to the data of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.
But prices of potatoes and dates were almost stable, said Tawhidul Alam Khan, a customer at the Karwan Bazar market. As usual, the retailers blamed the supply shortage for the price hike of vegetables. According to them, a section of the traders cash in on the situation in every Ramadan.
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