One of the sources of income growth for Barishal City Corporation (BCC) is the stalls in various markets. A certain circle is profiting from these, but the authority’s account remains empty.
There are allegations that nearly all of the 1,650 stalls across 12 markets in the city have ended up in the hands of public representatives, influential individuals, and BCC officials and employees. From these people, actual traders have to pay at least 10 to 20 lakh taka per stall for possession, ignoring rules and regulations. They also have to pay thousands of taka in monthly rent, none of which reaches the BCC. The genuine traders are not getting stalls.
In the large Fazlul Haque Avenue Market of Barisal city, there are 273 BCC stalls. The monthly income of BCC from these stalls is three lakh taka. Similarly, from a total of 1,650 stalls in the 12 stall markets including Sadar Road Market, Medical Market, and Municipal Market, BCC earns only three crore taka annually. But the genuine traders of the city have never been allotted even a single stall. They have to do business by paying heavy possession and rent in private buildings. This is affecting commodity prices.
Book trader Delwar Hossain said, my shop is 80 years old. Over these 80 years, I have applied many times from the municipality to BCC for a stall but never got one. Didn’t get it because these stalls have been given to relatives or through financial transactions, none of which we can afford. Here we are doing business paying 20 lakh taka for possession and 20 thousand taka monthly rent. None of the actual businessmen have received stalls.
Even though unscrupulous traders are paying rent at the rate of 91 taka per square foot for stall allotments, BCC is getting only 6 taka. As a result, while other commercial markets are making profits, BCC’s account stays empty. The real stall owners are earning several crore taka unlawfully through these stalls. Traders claim they are not getting any stall allotments. They are doing business by paying heavy possession and rent to the main owners.
A businessman from Jhautala area said, I have been doing business here for 5 years. I gave the stall owner an advance of 6 lakh taka and pay a monthly rent of 16 thousand 100 taka. Yet the trade license is in my name. I have to recover this expense from the commodity price. If the stall was mine, product prices would also be lower. Another said, I bought this stall from the actual owner and informed the BCC. I pay BCC a rent of 1,067 taka every month. In this market, both of us are doing business in our own stalls.
Another businessman said, BCC stalls are going to relatives. The stall owners are transferring hands one after another and charging high rent. Our demand is that stalls be allocated by verifying the trade licenses of the genuine traders.
It is illegal to do business by changing the name of a BCC stall. The rule is, to do business by changing the name, an amount equal to two years’ rent must be newly deposited. So far, only a few have done so. If this rule for changing names had been followed, even then BCC could have earned several crore taka from this.
BCC stall inspector S.M. Abul Kalam said, permission must be taken from BCC by paying the fee. But no one comes to take permission. This deadlock has been going on since the creation of the municipality. Earlier there were no policies, even after having policies we cannot implement them due to lack of clear directions from the authority. When a former mayor doubled the rent, they protested and stopped it. Now of course there is no political influence. Now if the authority gives instructions, we can do it.
The chief executive officer of BCC said the strictest measures will be taken to restore order in this biggest sector of income growth.
Chief Executive Officer Rezaul Bari said, we lease and allocate markets and stalls on monthly rent. If anyone violates the condition by renting out their own stall to someone else, strict action will be taken against them. Besides, every three years the rent amount will be updated by evaluating the market value.
Currently, BCC is getting a minimum monthly rent of 527 taka to a maximum of 4,725 taka from these stalls.
