Palm oil price slashed by Tk3 per litre

The government cut the price of per litre palm oil by Tk3 on Tuesday.

Edible oil traders will sell per litre palm oil at Tk130 from today (Wednesday) at mill gate, a release of Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners and Vanaspati Manufacturers Association said. 

The new rate was fixed at a meeting of the Directorate of National Consumers' Right Protection at the commerce ministry.

Earlier, the ministry on Sunday fixed the bottled soybean oil price at Tk160 per litre from the previous Tk168 reducing it by Tk8.  The government reduced the price of the loose oil by Tk7, saying the new rates will remain in force till next Eid-ul-Fitr. 

For a five-litre container of soybean oil, the rate has been revised down to Tk760 from Tk795.

The prices were fixed at a meeting with edible oil refiners on Sunday.

But there is hardly any impact of the new price at the retail level although the new rate has been effective at the mill gate. 

Earlier, in the wake of rising oil prices in the international market, businesses had sought to increase the soybean oil prices by Tk12 per litre at the end of February. But the commerce ministry suspended the price hike process.

This was followed by an instability in the cooking oil market - with refiners cutting supplies and wholesalers raising prices through syndication. 

The government has withdrawn the 5% VAT at the consumer level, 15% at the manufacturing stage and finally reduced the VAT from 15% to 5% at the import stage to bring stability in the edible oil market.