Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry has urged the government to relax the existing public procurement law 2006 for allowing Hotel Abakash to directly procure its essential food items on cash.
According to the tourism ministry officials, the annual cash procurement ceiling worth Tk5 lakh for a year is not good enough for the hotel as it often supplies huge amount of foods to various important state-sponsored events.
Supply of fresh food could also be uncertain due to the cash limit of the hotel, they added.
In this regard, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism is going to place a proposal signed by ministry’s secretary Khosihad Alam Chowdhury at the cabinet committee on economic affair on Wednesday next.
“Usually, Hotel Abakash supplies special foods at various state functions and others conferences held in Dhaka,” Khosihad Alam Chowdhury told the Dhaka Tribune.
Commercially-run and service-oriented Hotel Abakash located at Mohakhali in the city is now a profitable organisation, which badly needs more cash flows from the existing limit for directly procuring the raw materials and fresh food, on their own, he added.
According to the proposal, Hotel Abakash is now procuring food items not more than Tk25,000 for a single deal against its annual procurement limit of Tk5 lakh. And, if the limit is withdrawn, the hotel will earn more profit, revealed the proposal.
Officials of the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) have observed that the frequently called hartals and tough political programmes like blockade have been impeding the flow of the tourists from home and abroad, which is hurting the total income of the corporation.
They also urged the political parties to shun all kinds of destructive activities, which may hinder the prospective sector from achieving its expected target.
According to the available data in fiscal year 2012-13, despite the political upheavals, the BPC earned over Tk9 crore net profit while the net profit of it was Tk10 crore in the previous FY (2011-12).
