Comfort restores among consumers amid normal commodity prices: Commerce adviser

Commerce Adviser SK Bashir Uddin has said that comfort has been restored among the consumers amid normal prices of commodities and its smooth supply chain, thanks to various proactive measures by the interim government and enabling the businesses through various policy support.

In order to continue this momentum in the long-term, he said that there is a need to streamline the policy issues and thus meeting the deficits in the local production and in imports.

"As a result of various measures and also because of enabling further the trade operations, we're now witnessing comfort although temporary in the market by the grace of Almighty Allah," he said.

SK Bashir Uddin said this in an interview to the national news agency at his secretariat office on the current state of market situation, supply chain and the subsequent government measures to streamline the smooth operations at the countrywide markets.

Subsequent to this, he said, if the government wants to make this trend sustainable in the long-term there is a need to streamline the policy issues and thus meeting the deficits in the local production and in imports.

"We'll have to make the normal market situation and supply chain sustainable as I've always said that it is the primary responsibility of those who are 'primary masters' to be involved in such kind of long-term activity," he said.

But, he said, the government inherited such state of the market from a fragile position after the ouster of the Awami League government when there was a long-lasting flood, stagnancy in the economy following the July-August mass uprising last year which led to deficit in the supply chain.

Bashir said when lives and livelihood of the common people came to normalcy, deficits were then evident in the demand and supply side.

"So, the deficit was huge mostly because of the flood induced deficit and economic stagnancy induced deficit. The inflation that we witnessed during that time was totally supply-side driven," he added.

The Commerce Adviser said then the incumbent government liberalised the supply side through adopting trade measures, tariff adjustments, beefing up market monitoring with the concerned efforts from the Ministry of Finance, DNCRP and CAB.

Citing an example, he said that a huge deficit was created in the production and supply chain of potatoes while the prices of potatoes earlier reached into a dissimilar price tier reaching its prices at a record height.

"We'll also have to keep in mind that the prices do not lower to such extent for which the farmers become affected. So, we've to work in a complex choice and it's always very difficult to keep all happy at a time and accomplishing that difficult task is our duty. Although it's bound to be difficult, we're trying our best and we're taking various measures in the long-term," he said.

For edible oil, he said, the locally produced rice bran oil weighing 6 lakh to 7 lakh MTs is being given policy support to make it market-oriented. Besides, some 23 lakh to 24 lakh tonnes of soybean oil and palm oil is being imported to meet the local demand alongside the local mustard oil production of 6 lakh to 7 lakh tonnes.

He said the demand for edible oil increases significantly in both the holy Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha, the two largest festivals of the Muslim. Otherwise, the monthly requirement for edible oil on average in the country is roughly 1.5 lakh tonnes excluding mustard oil.

Cultivation of Soybean is also increasing in the country, he said, adding, "I hope benefits would come in the long-run in edible oil based on the proactive measures of the government".

Besides edible oil, Bashir said, ensuring availability of other items like vegetables, rice, sources of protein like eggs, beef, mutton and chicken cannot be the sole responsibility and planning of the Ministry of Commerce. Rather, it requires a holistic approach of state planning.

In order to streamline the Ministry of Commerce related operations, the commerce adviser said that the government has certainly taken measures to simplify further the supply chain, pursuing various kinds of trade facilitation, trade policy and ease of doing business, in a concerted way.

Outside of the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Commerce, he said that the country has enough success in production and availability of eggs where the Ministry of Commerce has no such role to play except the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock.

"We've enough success in production of fish, eggs and meat...I think a rationalisation should be made in meat, poultry and fish feed. It's my personal opinion that the prices of feed are high as the farmers are not so much benefitted while it also affects the production cost to some extent. Definitely, the issue should have to be sorted out and thus steps should be taken," he added.

If it is import-based, Bashir said the role of his ministry is huge.