PM orders immediate steps to ease power crisis, inflation rate
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has instructed the authorities concerned to take measures immediately to resolve the power crisis and high inflation rate, which she said were two of the biggest reasons for people's suffering.
"Inflation is becoming unbearable. Besides, the electricity situation has also reached an intolerable level over the last few days. Load shedding has increased due to the shutdown of power plants. So the government will give high priority to dealing with inflation and the power situation," Planning Minister MA Mannan told reporters after a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council at the Planning Commission in the capital on Tuesday.
The minister also told reporters that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had mentioned at the meeting that low income people are suffering due to inflation, which is not acceptable.
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He further said, "The state minister for power has already said the power situation will improve in the next two weeks. Hopefully, the problem will be solved by that time. However, it will not be possible to reduce inflation in the next two weeks. The prime minister has said it must be tackled.
"Our first step in this regard will be ensuring that inflation does not increase further. Then our strategy will be to control price hikes by increasing product stocks in the market. Imported and locally produced goods need to be stockpiled. The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh has to increase its stock of essential commodities like rice, pulses, potatoes and oil, the prices of which increase overnight."
The prime minister also inquired about the reasons behind the huge differences in product prices in markets at a small distance and ordered that research be done on this matter.
According to the prime minister, an increase in stocks in Dhaka will not suffice in resolving the ongoing crisis. Essential products should be stocked systematically in large volumes in Rajshahi, Chattogram, Khulna and Sylhet, said MA Mannan.
Besides, the government expects remittances to increase ahead of Eid. The country's exports are expected to increase at the same time, which will solve many problems, said the planning minister.
He also said the announced incentive for expatriates could be increased from 2.5% to 3.5% to attract more remittances. But in such a case, whether someone is taking money abroad from here and bringing it back to the country in the form of remittances should also come under scrutiny.
Besides, the government is thinking about doing business in other currencies during the dollar crisis.
Planning Minister MA Mannan said the premier had put emphasis on expediting the process of formulating and implementing G2G projects with different countries, such as India and China, as Bangladesh has agreements with those countries under their Lines of Credit.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said there should not be any delay or negligence in this regard as these initiatives would enhance foreign currency flow to Bangladesh, said Mannan.
He also said from now on it will be considered carefully what types of car a project official can use and how much money can be spent in this regard. So far, the Planning Commission has not been considering these issues deeply.
Apart from that, the size of the office for the project officials and the amount of furniture they will get will also be taken into consideration to save money.
