The people will be allowed to purchase daily essentials from the TCB trucks without family cards, Senior Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh said on Monday.

The government is set to offer pulses at Tk 60, potatoes at Tk 30, onions at Tk 50 per kg, and soybean oil at Tk 100 per liter through TCB truck sales starting Tuesday. The people having no family cards will also be able to buy the products, said the commerce secretary.

While speaking at a press conference, Tapan Kanti said the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) will continue the operation five days a week.

The products will be sold in open trucks to at least nine thousand people except for the one crore family cardholders and anyone can buy these products at the subsidised rates, said.

“If we can enhance the collection of these products, the potential for truck sales will also be expanded in the future,” the government official said, adding that each truck will contain enough products to provide a minimum of 300 people.

Primarily, the truck sale will remain closed on Friday and Saturday and the products will be sold at different parts of the capital every day following a roster, he said.

The prices of daily essentials surged due to the global economic crisis and the rising dollar exchange rate, he said.

Despite these, the government has taken measures to keep the local market under control and as part of its efforts, some 10,0095 tonnes of potatoes have already been imported. Moreover, the agriculture ministry has given an import proposal of 2 lakh tonnes of potatoes, he said.

Earlier, the government has allowed imports of 25 crore eggs of which some 62,000 eggs have already imported to meet the local demand, he said.

The potatoes and eggs will be imported until the market comes under control,” Tapan Kanti said adding that the government got a significant result after importing eggs and potatoes.

An instruction has been given by the Prime Minister's Office to sell potatoes at Tk 27 per kg from the cold storage gate across the country.  

The government has also given instructions to the authorities concerned so that there is no dollar problem in importing oil, sugar, pulses and potatoes, said the government's high official.