Trading Corporation of Bangladesh will directly procure some 125 lakh litres (12.5 million litre) of soybean oil and 5000 kilogram of lentil from 7 local suppliers without following any competitive process.

Cabinet committee on government purchase (CCGB) in a meeting, with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair, gave approval to the proposals in this regard.

Commerce Ministry placed the proposals on behalf of the TCB, the state marketing agency.

As per the proposals, some 40 lakh (4 million) litre of the edible will be procured from Super Oil Refinery at Tk 173.95 per liter while remaining 85 lakh (8.5 million) litre will be purchased from three suppliers at Tk 171 per liter.

Of the three suppliers, Shun Shing Edible Oil Ltd, a subsidiary company of Bangladesh Edible Oil Limited (BEOL), will supply 20 lakh litre while Bashundhara Multi Food Products Limited (BMFPL), a subsidiary of Bashundhara Group, will supply 35 lakh litre and Sena Edible Oil Industry, a subsidiary of Sena Kalyan Sangstha Bangladesh, will provide 30,000 litre of soybean oil.

The 40 lakh litre of the edible oil will cost Tk 69.58 crore while 85 lakh litre will cost Tk 145.35 crore.

Some 5000 kg of lentil will be procured from three suppliers at cost of Tk 55.50 crore with each kg price at Tk 111.

Of these, some 3000 kg will be purchased from ACI Limited, 1000 kg from Nadil Traders and 1000 from Roy Traders.

Read: TCB to procure soyabean oil, lentil and sugar from business groups

Abdul Barik, Additional secretary of the Cabinet, who briefed reporters about the outcomes of the Cabinet body meeting, said the TCB will procure the commodities through direct procurement method (DPM) showing the cause of emergency needs.

The TCB, a subordinate body of the Commerce Ministry, will sell these goods to people at controlled rates as part of the government’s open market sale (OMS) programe, he added.

The CCGP also approved another 13 proposals from different ministries.

Of these, the state-owned Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) will procure some 120,000 metric tons of fertilizer from four international suppliers.

Of these, 30,000 mt of bagged prilled urea fertilizer will be procured from Muntajat of Qatar at a cost Tk 152.50 crore, while another 30,000 mt bagged granular from Kafco at Tk 151.57 crore.

Some 30,000 mt of bulk granular urea will be imported from SABIC Agri-nutrients Company of Saudi Arabia at Tk 151.88 crore and another 30,000 mt from the same Saudi company at Tk 149.08 crore.

Each metric ton of urea from the four lots will cost between $443.35 and $524.50 which earlier cost between $588 and $557.87 per metric ton.

This shows that the cost of urea fertilizer is decreasing in the global market which had crossed $1000 immediately after the Russia-Ukraine war began.

Six separate proposals from the Chattagram Port Authority under the Ministry of Shipping received the nod of the committee to hire six berth operators at the port for next 5 years.