Rumours of salt price hike spread in Sylhet, businessman fined

A mobile court fined a shop at retail market Kalighat in Sylhet for selling salt at a higher price on Monday night. Photo: Manaubi Singh
A mobile court fined a shop at retail market Kalighat in Sylhet for selling salt at a higher price on Monday night. Photo: Manaubi Singh

Rumours of a salt price hike spread in Sylhet city on Monday evening leaving consumers thronging shops to buy the household essential.
Taking advantage of the rumour, some unscrupulous businessmen were selling salt at Tk 40 to Tk 100 per kg. The normal price is Tk 30-35 per kg.
Sylhet district administration, led by upazila assistant commissioner Sumanta Banarjee and executive magistrate Mohammad Mejbah Uddin, conducted a drive around 9:00pm in different markets of the city.
The team fined a shop named Shimul Store Tk 45,000 at retail market Kalighat to sell salt at a higher price. Some 600 kg of salt was confiscated in the drive.
A shop owner of Mirzajangal area said he had sold around 20 kg of salt since Monday evening but did not want to disclose the selling price.
Sumit Dev, a consumer from Monipuri Rajbari area, said, “I’ve bought 4 kg salt at Tk 10 higher per kg.”
He said he had heard of the hike in salt price from the people.
Assistant commissioner Sumanta Banarjee told Prothom Alo that a mobile court conducted a drive to fight rumours about the salt price hike spread by some unscrupulous elements.
He said the confiscated salt would be sold in auction.