Truck fares for carrying goods have risen by Tk 6,000 to Tk 10,000 since fuel prices went up, and the cost is showing in Chattogram's wholesale farm-produce markets. In Chaktai-Khatunganj, the country's second-largest wholesale market for consumer goods, onion that sold for Tk 32-33 a kilo two days earlier was selling for Tk 38-40 on Wednesday (23 September). Rice rose by Tk 20 a sack.

On Sunday night the government raised the prices of four fuels by Tk 20 a litre with effect from midnight: diesel to Tk 135, kerosene to Tk 155, octane to Tk 165 and petrol to Tk 160. Diesel, used by most goods and passenger transport, went from Tk 115 to Tk 135.

Abul Kashem, president of the Chaktai Aratdar Traders' Association, said a truckload from Kushtia or Pabna to Chattogram used to cost Tk 28,000-30,000 and now costs Tk 35,000-36,000, while sending goods from Chattogram to Cox's Bazar and the district's upazilas costs up to Tk 4,000 more. Md Rafiq, general secretary of the Chaktai-Khatunganj Aratdar Traders' Association, said: "Where the fare used to be Tk 30,000, no truck now comes for less than Tk 35,000-36,000."

Rice is under more pressure. Omar Faruk, owner of Uttar Banga Traders in Pahartali, Chattogram's largest wholesale rice market, said a truckload of rice from Naogaon or Dinajpur used to cost Tk 30,000-32,000 and now costs Tk 40,000-42,000. By his reckoning this has added 50 paisa a kilo to wholesale rice and Tk 1-2 a kilo at retail.

Traders say the extra transport cost is being added to the price of goods and is falling in the end on consumers. With onion and rice from growing areas such as the north and Kushtia-Pabna costing more to bring to Chattogram, prices are rising at both wholesale and retail level.

The report is by Bangla Tribune's Chattogram correspondent Nasir Uddin Roki.

Source: Bangla Tribune