Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Monday said due to the steps taken by the government, inflation will be brought under control.
"The balance of payment will improve and the exchange rate of foreign currency will stabilize,” the finance minister said while responding to a tabled question from ruling party MP Momtaz Begum.
The finance minister said that the government has various plans to control inflation, improving the balance of payment situation and stabilizing the exchange rate of foreign currency and is implementing them.
He presented several steps in the parliament.
Among these are making the exchange rate with the US dollar and other currencies market-based, ensuring accurate pricing for goods imports to rebuild reserves, reducing foreign exchange holding limits in banks, abolishing the obligation to show sources for expatriate income over $5,000 and expediting disbursement of foreign financing in the pipeline.
In response to the question of Jamalpur-5 MP Mozaffar Hossain, the finance minister said that a high-powered task force was formed in 2009 to solve the problem of stagnant industries.
According to their decision, 279 sick garments in 2010 and 2012 and 100 sick textile industries in 2011 and 2015 were issued debt cancellation circulars.
To a question from Mymensingh-11 MP Kazim Uddin Ahmed, the finance minister said that in the current 2023-24 fiscal year, an allocation of Tk35,000 crore has been set for distribution in the form of loans in the agriculture and rural credit sector through banks in the “Agriculture and Rural Credit Policy and Program”.
Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar, while responding to a question of Samil Uddin Ahmed Shimul of Chapainawabganj-1 constituency, said that the current prevailing call rate has been determined in 2018 by analyzing the market, socio-economic context, etc.
“Currently, there is no plan to reschedule call rates,” he said.
At present, the maximum call rate is Tk2 and the minimum is 45 paisa, said the minister.
He said that mobile operators have to design packages between tariffs for on-net and off-net voice calls in a specific package, offer or bundle.
Although the maximum call rate is Tk2, the operators design different packages at a rate of less than Tk1 per minute through competition among themselves.
In response to the question of Naogaon-2 Awami League MP Shahiduzzaman Sarker, the minister of Posts and Telecommunications said that 4 mobile operators are being operated in the country.
In the 2022-23 financial year, the companies paid a revenue of Tk3,178.91 crore to the government.