TCB to procure 2.75cr litres of soybean oil

State-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) will procure 2.75 crore (27.5 million) litres of soybean oil from the local suppliers for its Open Market Sale (OMS) programme.

Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) in a virtual meeting on Wednesday approved three separate proposals of the Ministry of Commerce in this regard.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the meeting while other members of the committee attended it virtually.

The move of the TCB, a subordinate body of the commerce ministry, which has been operating as a state-marketing agency to tame the rising price hike of essentials, is part of the government's plan to procure some essential commodities in bulk and sell those through the OMS programme.

As per the commerce ministry's proposals, the TCB will procure the entire edible oil through three open tenders.

Under the proposals, some 1.10 crore litres of soybean oil will be procured from privately owned City Edible Oil Ltd at a cost of Tk203.32 crore with cost of each litre at Tk104.48.

Similar quantity of soybean oil will be procured from Super Oil Refined Ltd at Tk204.44 crore with each litre costing Tk185.95 and some 55 lakh litres of soybean oils will be purchased from Shun Shing Edible Oil Ltd at a cost of Tk101.47 crore with each litre's price at Tk184.05.

The CCGP also approved some other procurement proposals, including the procurement of 130,000 metric tonnes of fertiliser.

Of these, the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) will import 50,000MW of Muriate of Potash (MoP) fertiliser from Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) at a cost of Tk344.90 crore with each metric tonne costing $655.03.

The Canadian Commercial Corporation will supply another 50,000MT of MoP at the same price under a separate lot.

State-owned Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) will import 30,000 MT of bulk granullar urea from Fertiglobe Distribution Ltd, UAE at a cost of Tk163.75 crore with each metric tonne costing $518.33.

The BCIC will also import 10,000 metric tonnes (MT) of phosphoric acid for its Chattagram TSP Complex Limited from Guizhou Chanhen Chemical Corporation, China (local agent Best Eastern, Dhaka) at a cost of Tk73 crore.

The CCGP approved a number of proposals of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works to raise the cost of civil works under its "Construction of Elevated Expressway from Lalkhan Bazar in Chittagong City to Shah-Amanat Airport" project.

Under the proposals, the cost of the civil construction works No-WD-1 will be increased byTk 649.02 crore, while cost of the civil works No-WD-1 of "Construction of road from Kalurghat Bridge to Chaktai Canal along the banks of Karnaphuli River" will get higher by Tk230.05 crore.

The CCGP approved a proposal of the Roads and Highways Department to award a Tk1,085.34 crore contract to a joint venture of (1) CHSIETC, China; (2) SLGC, China and (3) PDL, Bangladesh to implement the Construction of lot No-DS-06 of the WP-03 package of the "SASEC Dhaka-Sylhet Corridor Road Development" project.

The committee also approved three proposals for the extension costs of the three segments of a project under the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC).

As per the approvals, the cost of the work of No-WP-10 package of the "Sasec Road Link Project-2: Upgradation of Elenga-Hatikamrul-Rangpur highway to 4-lane" will be increased by Tk211.03 crore while the cost of the work No-WP-11 package of the same project will be increased by Tk147.65 crore and cost of the works No-WP-12 package will be enhanced by Tk142.84 crore.