Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi on Thursday said reopening markets is not mandatory for businesspeople.

“The market owners who don’t want to reopen shopping malls can keep those shut… reopening market is not mandatory and there is no rigidity in this regard,” he said at a press briefing held at the Secretariat on Thursday while replying to a question from reporters.

On May 4, the government announced that it will allow businesspeople to keep shops and shopping malls open till 4 pm every day from May 10 maintaining health guidelines during the general holidays extended until May 16 considering Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr.

State-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) will start selling onion at Tk 25 per kg from Saturday, the minister said.

The government took the decision following a rise in onion prices in different markets with the start of Ramadan, Tipu Munshi said.

“There’ll be no crisis of daily essentials, at least in the next four months, as the government has taken necessary preparations. This year, TCB can provide better services as more goods have been stocked compared to the previous year,” he said.

Claiming that the prices of daily essentials are at tolerable level, Tipu said, “Although the price of ginger had gone up, now it has come down as we imported it and is selling at Tk 150 per kg now.”

Amid the ongoing coronavirus situation, dealers are selling goods in trucks at 500 points of the country, he said adding, “We’ve strengthened the monitoring system so that no irregularity can take place in any part of the country and the local administration is monitoring it.”

Besides, four routes—Hilli, Birol, Darshana and Benapole—have been chosen for bringing goods from India through railways, he said.

The authorities have been asked to pay full salaries to garment workers who have joined their work while 65 percent to those who have failed to join,” he said.