The interim government is taking steps to ensure that prices of essential food commodities are within tolerable levels during upcoming Ramadan, said Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin yesterday.

"I know you (people) are in a lot of pain. We are working on it. The prices of onion, sugar and oil have come down slightly," he added.

Bashir made these remarks while speaking as chief guest at an event on the distribution of an NRBC Bank-supported education allowance among 30 children of deceased members of Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) on the platform's premises.

"We are trying to make the market as tolerable as possible ahead of Ramadan. We want to keep the demand and supply at proportional levels," he said.

Food inflation in the country is already high and local markets usually witness a hike in the prices of essential food commodities ahead of Ramadan, putting a burden on consumers having to do with limited incomes.

A lot of malpractices have plagued the society in Bangladesh over the past 15 years, for which essential food commodity prices have gone up to such high levels, Bashir said.

"We had a state, but the society was unprecedentedly divided. Our society was scared," he said.

"Now a new government has been formed based on a student-led mass movement to transform it into a dignified society," Bashir added.

DRU President Syed Shukur Ali Shuvo presided over the programme while its general secretary, Mohi Uddin, also spoke.