The top wholesalers and traders of essentials echoed with the minister in a meeting saying a syndicate of 10-15 traders control the commodities market and cause the price hike of essentials. The minister said, "Even though it is not the duty of the Ministry of Commerce to track down the syndicate but our intelligence agencies have already traced the group."

"I hope the concerned ministry will take appropriate actions against the syndicate," he added.

He said there is an investigation going on to find out the group of people who control the price of essential items.

Meanwhile, the minister also accused the media and retailers of having a hand behind the price hike of the essentials.

"When wholesalers sells ginger at Tk 30 per kilogram, the retailers sale the same thing at Tk 55, this is unacceptable," the minister said.

After assuming the ministry office on April 25, 2006, Hafizuddin said the government would stop the price escalation of essentials within a couple of months. But the prices of most items have increased.

About his earlier commitment the minister said, "I meant sugar prices then because I knew about the government's measures to cut duty on a number of items in the 2005-06 budget."

He said it is not only the responsibility of the commerce ministry to tackle the prices hike of essentials. The finance ministry, agriculture ministry and home ministry also have a part to play, he said adding that it was unfortunate that the media blames only the commerce ministry for price hikes.

Earlier, the government had taken a number of steps to hold back the climbing price of essential items but those actions were not so fruitful, he said.

"So we are going to take a number of stronger measures to tackle price hikes during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan," the minister said.

He informed about the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh's (TCB) plans to import commodities that usually suffer price hikes during Ramadan.

"I think the government should import some essential commodities to help bring the prices down," the minister added.

Hafizuddin said all necessary steps would be taken soon to help bring down the price of essential commodities to a bearable level.

"We are going to formulate a tough law against the hoarders in parliament soon," he said.

"Government should enact the consumer protection act soon, otherwise the controlling power of the syndicates will remain," said Golam Mawla, general secretary of Moulvibazar Baboshayee Samity, while talking to The Daily Star after the meeting.

The price of sugar will not increase any further if the government imported sugar with its own mechanism, said a sugar trader.

He said when the government let private firms import sugar, the sugar prices increased from Tk 20 to Tk 35 per Kg.

Traders feared the edible oil price would increase soon if the government did not import edible oil through its own mechanism.

Feroz Ahmed, secretary to the commerce ministry and Mir Nasir Hossain, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) were present among others in the meeting.