10/01/2012 (bdnews24.com) - The Tariff Commission says it will not raise prices of edible oil.

"The mills are selling the oil at a lower price than what we fixed. So there is no need to raise the prices," Commission chairman Mujibur Rahman told reporters on Monday.

"I've spoken to all mill owners and they have told me that none of them are selling oil above Tk 106 per litre," he added.

In July last year the retail price of soybean oil was fixed at Tk 109 and Tk 99 for palm oil.

When asked about oil being sold in the market for Tk 140 to 145, Rahman said, "The fluctuation in prices is caused by middlemen."

He said the oil reserve was more than sufficient. "There is a reserve of 250,000 tonnes and another 80,000 tonnes is at the Chittagong port waiting to be unloaded."

He said once the revenue board issues a new circular on taxes, due in one or two days, the oil price will fall even further.

"This is a sort of trick by the middlemen. We found no reason why the oil price should be Tk 140 to 145. They are playing with the market using the dollar exchange rate," he added.

"We will have increased scrutiny of the market to protect consumers."

He assured that the mills were selling palm oil at Tk 92 and soybean oil for Tk 106 and that the market would be corrected within a week.