Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi on Thursday claimed that the prices of daily necessities are now at a tolerable level.
Replying to a question from Jatiya Party MP from Kishoreganj Mujibul Huq, Tipu said a number of steps have been taken to keep the price of daily commodities within the reach of the consumers.
In response to another question from Awami League MP from Brahmanbaria Mohammad Ebadul Karim Bulbul, the commerce minister said Bangladesh exported goods to 203 countries in FY2021-22.
Out of these, Bangladesh has trade deficit with 91 countries and favourable balance with 112 countries.
In the FY2021-22, the exports amounted to $60,971.26 million compared to imports worth $82,500 million.
That means the trade deficit in FY021-22 was $21,528.74 million.
Responding to Awami League MP from Dhaka Benazir Ahmed, the minister said that the trade deficit with the Saarc countries in the FY2021-22 stood at $11,986.98 million.
In the FY2021-22, the trade deficit with China was $19,353.37 million.
The minister said some 8,930 products (98%) have received duty-free, quota-free access to the Chinese market due to the government's efforts from Thursday.
As a result, exports to China will increase and trade deficit will decrease, he claimed.
In response to Awami League MP from Bhola Ali Azam, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said that until last Tuesday, Bangladesh had 1,950,531 metric tons of food grains in stock.
He said the government has gone for G2G (government to government) system to import wheat from Russia and rice from India, Myanmar and Vietnam.
In response to another question from the same MP, the food minister said the total food grain consumption of over 160 million people in the country is over 23.3 million metric tons.
Of these, over 22.1 million metric tons are rice and over 1.1 million metric tons of wheat.
In FY2021-22, the production of food grains was over 38.9 million metric tons, more than the demand.
Claming there is no possibility of a food crisis in the country, the minister said according to the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy, 10.5 million metric tons of food grains are supposed to be kept in safety stock, but currently there is more in stock than this.
In response to Jatiya Party MP elected from Pirojpur Rustam Ali Faraji, the food minister said that in the FY2021-22, 1,544,145.8 metric tons of rice, 1,995,539.6 metric tons of edible oil, 699,129.3 metric tons of onions and 54,237.6 metric tons of garlic have been imported.
In response to Jatiya Party MP elected from Rangpur Mashiur Rahman Ranga, the minister said that in FY2021-22, 6,702,688.5 metric tons of wheat, 2,777,468.8 metric tons of oilseeds, 2,708,049 metric tons of sugar, 363,107.5 metric tons of spices, 1,248,392.7 metric tons of pulses, 1,236,131.4 metric tons of fruits, 156,246.2 metric tons of dairy products have been imported.
In response to the question of Awami League MP from reserved woman seat Begum Nazma Akhtar, Expatriate Welfare Minister Imran Ahmed said 408,408 workers have returned from abroad in 2020 during the Covid-19 period.
Besides, in 2021, some 34,494 workers have returned without pass till May.
In response to Awami League MP elected from Bhola Nurunnabi Chowdhury, Imran said some 7,319,316 workers have been sent to different countries of the world from FY2008-2009 to FY2020-21.
According to the information of the minister, the highest number of people went abroad in the FY2016-17.
The number is 893,739, and the lowest number of 271,445 people went in FY2020-21.