The new system of distributorship for marketing sugar and soya bean oil was launched partially on Tuesday as the refiners could not totally scrap the existing Delivery Order (DO) system.
Although the distributorship system was supposed to be launched experimentally from 1 June, the concerned businesses did not keep the deadline set by the Ministry of Commerce.
The ministry had to extend the deadline to 20 June to give the refiners enough time to complete the appointment of distributors and drop the DO system.
Commerce secretary Gulam Hossain on Tuesday told New Age, 'All the big refiners, including the City Group and Meghna Group, have launched distributorship of oil and sugar partially from today, but none of them has submitted to the ministry the complete list of their appointed distributors.'
When asked about the possible performance of the distributorship system, Ghulam Hossain said it would take at least 3 or 4 days for the monitoring committees to evaluate the new system.
The government on 21 March issued 'The Essential Commodities Marketing and Distributor Appointment Order 2011' that made it mandatory for the oil and sugar refiners to appoint distributors within 90 days and scrap the DO system.
The commerce ministry on 16 June at a meeting with the refiners extended the deadline for the second time. The meeting decided that the DO system would be valid till 30 June by which time the appointment of distributors must be completed.
Deshbandhu Sugar Mills Ltd has already started supplying sugar to its 162 appointed distributors and prepared a list of 200 distributors who are yet to pay their deposit.
An executive of the mill said that a ship carrying 5,300 tonnes of sugar had reached Chittagong Port at the beginning of this month, and almost all the sugar has been supplied to the distributors and the system is doing well. The next ship carrying sugar is supposed to reach the port on 5 to 7 July.
He said that the distributors are getting supply orders after submission of deposit money, and have been asked to keep the wholesale price of sugar at Tk 55 per kg and the retail price at Tk 57 per kg.
He said that the distributors are buying sugar at Tk 52.56 per kg directly from the mill.
According to the Order 2011, the distributors have to collect the concerned product through supply orders which cannot be handed over to another person. The supply order will expire after 15 days.
Source : New Age
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