Staff Correspondent

Bangladesh Competition Commission (BCC) has fined two leading poultry farms - Diamond Egg Ltd and CP Bangladesh - Tk 3.5crore for artificially increasing the prices of eggs through alleged manipulation of prices.

The judgment of the two case was published on Wednesday. Earlier, the BCC gave a final order in this regard on Monday last. The copy of the order has been published on the BCC website.

However, the accused farms have alleged that the BCC did not take any of their arguments into consideration.

As per the judgment, Diamond Egg Ltd will have to pay Tk 2.5 crore and CP Bangladesh Tk 1 crore in 30 days from the day the order was issued, BCC said in separate orders.

The BCC filed two separate cases against 10 poultry farms and poultry related organisations in 2022 for raising the prices of eggs in the market through alleged collusive practices.

BCC member Hafizur Rahman said that the foultry farms were fined because the charges against them were proven.

The BCC said Diamond Egg Ltd and CP Bangladesh increased the prices of eggs abnormally in August 2022 in connivance with other companies. Finally, the BCC fined the two companies after the hearing on the cases against those. If the fined money is not deposited within 30 days of the judgements, the companies will have to pay additional Tk 1 lakh fine for each consecutive day.

The accused farms have alleged that the BCC did not take any of their arguments into consideration before pronouncing judgements against them.

Diamond Egg Ltd's managing director Kaiser Ahmed said, "We are yet to receive the copy of full judgement in our hands. Once we receive the copy of the judgement, we will decide our next steps."