TCB to operate year-round as queues get longer

Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, the lone state-owned market regulator, has taken steps to raise its warehouse capacities to cool down the commodity market in the country.

Subsequently, it has decided to operate throughout the year, an official of the commerce ministry said.

The country’s low-income people generally buy edible oils, onions, pulses and sugar at much lower prices from TCB. The Corporation will gradually build regional offices and warehouses in different parts of the country, said the official, requesting anonymity.

The government is going to acquire 2.55 acres of land in Paba upazila of Rajshahi for the expansion of the state organization to construct an office and a warehouse there.

The land acquisition will begin soon.

TCB got much attention from the low income people in Dhaka and other cities amid the Coronavirus pandemic.

City dwellers are seen forming long queues to collect daily essentials from TCB trucks at various corners of the capital.

The consumers turned to TCB en masse in September and October, when onion and edible oil prices got volatile.

TCB sold these items at much lower prices, attracting more people into their queues.

Despite an increase in demand for TCB products, the state organization’s stock capacity has not been expanded in a decade.

A letter signed by TCB Chairman Brigadier General Md. Ariful Hasan said that as per the instructions by the government, some essential commodities like pulses, oil, onion, gram seed and dates are being sold at affordable prices.

Apart from this, TCB is playing a crucial role in keeping domestic market prices stable. Its activities have been multiplied in recent years, officials said.

As TCB lacks enough storage, they have to rent private warehouses. During any national emergency, TCB needs some 25,600 tonnes of daily essentials.

The Corporation has to pay rent for these warehouses even if it does not stockpile goods all the year round. Rents also vary.

Experts say renting private warehouses is a waste of public funds and that the quality of the products could not be maintained properly.

Currently, TCB stores goods in 15 warehouses across the country. Of these, only four warehouses are owned by the TCB. The capacity of these four warehouses are 15,000 tonnes. It stores products in warehouses with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes in Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Barisal, Moulvibazar and Mymensingh, respectively.

The quality of rented warehouses is not always good, so food grains go stale sometimes. In this regard, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce AHM Shafiquzzaman told Business Insider Bangladesh on Saturday that TCB wants to continue its activities throughout the year. In particular, selling of daily commodities in trucks should be continued.

He said TCB has earned the trust of the common people. And, the Ministry of Commerce also works to control the market aided by TCB, he said.

The additional secretary acknowledged that the market intervention is not properly working with small amounts of commodities.

Once, it had the capacity to provide 2% of the total market demand but in the last one and half years it has increased to 12%, he claimed.

In other words, the capacity has already increased by 10 percent.

“To further enhance this capacity, new warehouses and TCB offices and regional offices will be built in different parts of the country. Besides, the number of TCB employees has not increased,” he said.

The organization is now working on a plan to distribute products worth Tk 2,200 crore this year.