State Minister for Commerce Ahsanul Islam Titu on Friday said that the government would try to continue providing essential items to common and low income group people at subsidized and fair prices through setting up permanent shops for the dealers of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
"Members of some one crore family card holders are now enjoying the essential commodities of TCB at subsidized rates while there is an effort to increase such coverage in future," he said.
The state minister for Commerce said this while replying to a question at a post-budget press conference at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital on Friday afternoon.
Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali moderated the press conference and replied to various queries from reporters.
BNP slams budget as favouring oligarchs over peopleMentioning that the government has reduced the duty on imports of essentials like rice, lentils, and chickpeas at 1% from 2%, Ahsanul said such move would help to keep the prices of such items at tolerable level.
He informed that the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) would continue monitoring of the markets as it is a continuous process. He said that the import duty and supplementary duty have been
reduced on a good number of products to put an impact on the market.
Citing various reasons for food inflation being still comparatively high in the country, the state minister for Commerce said that efforts would be made to reduce inflation further, including food inflation.
He said the prices of imported sugar and edible oil remain less compared to the previous year while the Ministry of Commerce's operations to monitor the market would continue.
