The suspension of open market sale (OMS) by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) from January 1 comes as a big shock to low income people in Dhaka and Chittagong cities as around 24,500 people lost the opportunity to get supply of oil, rice and pulses at subsidized price.
This programme was introduced with 50 truck mounted commodities in Dhaka city and with 20 trucks at Chittagong city. They would sell products at city intersections from last October 24 to bring relief to low income people amid staggering high inflation.
The closure of a similar sale programme of agricultural products launched by Department of Agricultural Marketing in last October has also come as a big shock to low income people.
Some sources however said the government would resume supply of essentials through smart cards to people through dealers shop from January instead of OMS operration.
Observers say closure of these programmes or reducing their coverage will further aggravate the suffering of the poor. Many beneficiaries are now unable to cope with the added financial pressure and demanded resumption of TCB sale programme at city points.
Sources said the TCB launched the programme of selling food products at subsidized prices to help the poor. Initially, the programme was supposed to run until November 30, but it was extended until December as inflation was not under control. So OMS was closed from January.
TCB spokesperson Humayun Kabir said, "Those who have family cards receive products throughout the year. Apart from this, OMS supply trucks were run at special times for low-income people on instructions of the Commerce Ministry; so that common people can buy products at subsidized prices."
According to TCB sources; under this sale programme, a consumer could buy a maximum of 2 liters of edible oil at Tk 100 per litre, 2 kg of lentils at Tk 60 per kg and 5 kg of rice at Tk 30 per kg.
Commerce Advisor Sheikh Bashiruddin said, "We have been informed about the closure of the TCB operation. The programme will however be reconsidered."
TCB sources said the government has decided to provide products now only to smart card holders from January. In this case, only 5.7 million smart card holders out of 10 million will get this benefit.
Until now, a family used to get a simple paper card to purchase TCB products. Now TCB started distributing products against smart cards by canceling this old card.
"TCB used to provide products to 10 million card-holding families, but now it is providing them to only 5.7 lakh families; out of which 4.3 lakh families have been left out.
The Jatiya Nagorik Committee (National Citizens Committee) has protested the decision of closure of TCB's truck mounted sales.
Committee member-secretary Akhtar Hossain said, "In 2024, the middle class, garment workers and ordinary people took to the streets. Their expectation was that after the fall of the fascist dictatorship, the living standards would be easy.
"Looting syndicate would be broken, their purchasing power would increase, and their self-respect would be restored. But nothing happened."
On Sunday a visit by this Correspondent to major city points in the capital show that low-income people were waiting in the hope of getting products at low prices like other days, But they did not get them. After waiting for hours, they returned empty-handed. As TCB reduced the supply of various products including soybean oil, sugar, rice, the sale of products at truck sales has stopped.
A similar scene was seen at Tejgaon truck stand where some people had gathered to buy goods from TCB trucks. The same scene was visible in Khilgaon and Goran area.
