The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The state owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) has no preparation to sell any essentials during the month of Ramzan, officials said.

"We floated several tenders during the last couple of months to import gram, onion, sugar and edible oil but found no offer acceptable," TCB official Sirajul Islam Khondker told The New Nation yesterday.

He said till Sunday TCB has nothing in store to sell during the month of Ramzan. "We have signed a contract with a Nepalese company early this month for 500 tonnes of lentil but we are not sure to get those until the shipment," he added.

TCB usually sells gram, onion, sugar and edible oil during the month of Ramzan at lower prices to keep the market stable.

TCB had planned to buy 3000 litres of edible oil, 200 tonnes of gram, 100 tonnes of onion and 500 tonnes of lentil through local and international tender and sell those in the local market during the month of Ramzan.

The state owned trading organisation took the initiative to buy edible oil through local and international import but failed to do so despite floating tenders three times. None of the local or international bidders participated in the tenders. It even failed to sell any single tender documents during the first and second round tenders.

TCB had floated tender two times to buy gram and onion. But none of the local or international companies participated in the tenders. To encourage participation of local and international bidders in the TCB tender processes the government had reduced the earnest money to 2 per cent from 10 per cent. Yet it filed to attract any bidder.

Expressing his frustration Sirajul Islam Khondker said, "I am worried, if we will be able to import any essentials and sell those during the month of Ramzan. In the next couple of days we will be floating some more tenders. We have nothing but to look forward."

An official of the TCB alleged that the Ministry of Commerce, parent organisation of the TCB, is not cooperating in the import procedures. TCB has no power to take decision independently. It has to wait days for a decision from the Ministry, he noted.

According to the sources, TCB officials have now no work except making daily market price report.