The government on Thursday allowed edible oil refiners to increase the price of soya bean oil by Tk 9 a litre to Tk 153 a litre.

On May 3, the government allowed them to increase the price of soya bean oil to Tk 141 a litre from Tk 139 a litre before Eid-ul-Fitr, celebrated on May 14, and to Tk 144 a litre after Eid.

The Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners and Vanaspati Manufacturers Association in a press release on Thursday said that the one-litre bottle of soya bean oil would be sold for Tk 153 from Saturday while the five-litre bottle would be retailed at Tk 728.

The edible oil refiners have recently proposed to the government that the price of soya bean oil should  be raised by Tk 12 a litre to Tk 156 a litre as the international prices of the item continued to rise.

Both the government and the refinery companies on Thursday said that there had been a lesser increase in the prices of edible oil on the local market  with price hike on the global market in the last one year.

They said that the international prices of soya bean and palm oil had been increasing every day due to the Covid pandemic.

On March 15, the commerce ministry and oil refiners decided to increase the price of soya bean oil to Tk 139 a litre from Tk 135 a litre.

In the last week of April, the edible oil companies proposed to the government that the price of soya bean oil should be raised to Tk 144 a litre.