Dhaka, July 2 (UNB) – The government will take stern action against traders if found realizing excessive and unjustified prices of essentials during the holy month of Ramadan, Commerce Minister GM Quader told Parliament on Monday.

“We’ll take stern action if any trader realizes unjustified prices of essentials,” he said while responding to a supplementary question of Ziaul Haque Mridha (Brahmanbaria-2).

GM Quader said the government will not tolerate anything unjustified. “Traders will have to show the cost price… make reasonable profit.”

Admitting that some essentials are being sold at higher prices to some extent, he said: “We’re monitoring the market. There’ll be 14 monitoring teams in Dhaka to check Ramadan market. We’ll have such monitoring teams at divisional level too.”

The Commerce Minister informed the House that the government has taken necessary steps to ensure smooth supply of essentials during Ramadan.

He said: “We’ve built up stocks of essentials through TCB (Trading Corporation of Bangladesh), which is higher than at any time. There will be no supply crisis in the market.”

Import of essentials in the private sector is also continuing, he added.