The national task force on reviewing essential price at a meeting yesterday decided to take stern action against hoarding of any imported food items and asked Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) to initiate a drive to control prices of essentials.

The taskforce also recommended relaxing all sorts of restrictions on opening letters of credit (L/Cs) for importing food items as a

contingency measure to keep the market stable.

The high-profile taskforce assigned to help keep prices of essentials stable will soon make an exclusive call on Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman to request him to take the step for liberalising food import.

With Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury in the chair, the meeting also decided to reactivate the Trading Corporation of

Bangladesh (TCB) before coming Ramadan.

Altaf said stern action will be taken against those who will attempt to create artificial crisis of commodities by hoarding or any such machinations. Claiming that there is no price hike of essentials, he said the market is now stable and there is no need to be worried.

Advisor to the commerce ministry Barkat Ullah Bhulu, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) President Abdul Awal Mintoo, the commerce secretary, representatives of the food and agriculture ministries, DCC, Consumer Association of Bangladesh (Cab), and Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) were present at the meeting.

The commerce minister told the meeting that the agriculture, food, industries, home, LGRD, communications, shipping, and commerce ministries have joined forces to keep prices of daily essentials stable at any cost.

Barkat Ullah proposed to impose a regulation for ensuring mandatory marketing of the imported food items within a month of the arrival of a consignment at seaport.

Barkat Ullah recommended application of the Hoarding Act if any trader stockpiles his imported daily essentials, including sugar, milk, rice, oil, pulses and onions instead of marketing them.

Terming the existing dollar crisis a major factor for the rise in commodity prices, Abdul Awal Mintoo suggested for cooling down the overheated forex market, requesting the commerce minister to talk with the finance minister in this regard.

Mintoo proposed to declare a one-taka incentive over market price against every dollar sent by the Bangladeshi expatriates, which, he thinks, will resolve the greenback crunch on the money market as well as help prevent the illegal hundi business.

He also identified an imbalance between the monetary policy and

revenue policy as a major cause of price hike of consumer products.

The taskforce meeting also asked the DCC authorities to strengthen its drives against what is being reported as menacing food adulteration in the city markets.

Earlier, the CAB submitted a 12-point proposal in the meeting and urged the commerce ministry to develop a strict mechanism for monitoring market prices regularly.