Time Digital Report: The cabinet committee on public purchase is likely to review the commerce ministry proposal for purchasing some 2.9-crore litre soybean oil at about Tk 334 crore in a meeting today.

According to the ministry officials, it sent three proposals to the cabinet committee on the government purchases in the past week.

The first of three proposals is linked to importing 1.10 crore litres of soybean oil from international market through an international tender.

Two other proposals are linked to procuring about one-crore litre of soybean oil from local market under the direct purchase method.

The officials said that the soybean oil would be distributed through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh at a subsidised rate to the poor.

A TCB senior executive Md Sohabur Rahman said that they required some two crore litres of soybean oil to run the current programme of distributing the essential daily kitchen item to about 1 crore family card holders amid the high inflation.

The TCB has been selling two crore litres of soybean oil monthly to one crore family card holders at a subsidised rate since September, he added.

The amount of soybean distributed by the TCB accounted for 10 per cent of the monthly demand for the most essential item.

The monthly demand for soybean oil is about 2 lakh tonnes that depend on import by a handful number of refiners.

SK