Dhaka, June 19 (UNB) – Commerce Minister GM Quader Tuesday said in Parliament that the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) will sell soybean oil, sugar, pulse, chickpea and dates across the country through its dealers at lower prices during the holy month of Ramadan.

“The essentials, both locally procured and imported, will be sold through 2,952 TCB dealers. There is a plan to appoint dealer in each union across the country,” he told the House replying to a tabled question of adv M Ziaul Haque Mridha (Brahmanbaria-2).

GM Quadere said the government is implementing a plan to both locally procure and import 54,66,232 litres of soybean oil, 35,788 metric tons of sugar, 4,319.504 metric tons of pulse, 2000 metric tons of chickpea and 1,000 metric tons of dates, GM Quader said.

“A counter-guarantee of Tk 1,000 crore has already been received from the Finance Ministry,” the Commerce Minister said.

He informed that the manpower of the state-run TCB has been increased to 275 from previous 225 to strengthen its operations.

The Minister said that the construction work of a godown with 40,000 square feet of storage space at the Chittagong regional office is going on in full swing.