State Minister for Commerce Ahasanul Islam Titu has outlined the government’s strategy to control prices, as presented in the budget for 2024-25 fiscal year.
The Tk 7.97 trillion budget announced on Thursday set a target to bring down inflation from the current level of around 10 per cent.
Titu appeared in a post-budget press conference with Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood at the capital’s Osmani Memorial Auditorium on Friday, bdnews24.com reports.
State Minister for Finance Waseqa Ayesha Khan, Finance Secretary Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder and NRB Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem also joined them.
Economists criticised Ali’s budget speech for lacking a clear path towards achieving the inflation target.
The officials were questioned on the feasibility of controlling inflation and the specific measures included in the budget to manage price levels.
In response, the state minister for commerce emphasised that addressing inflation is a key challenge outlined in the budget.
To alleviate some of the economic pressure, the tax on daily essentials such as rice, wheat, chickpeas, and lentils has been halved from 2 percent to 1 percent.
“The market is continually monitored by the Directorate of National Consumers Rights Protection. There has been no indication that the market has destabilised following the budget announcement,” he said.
Highlighting the government efforts to ease the inflationary pressure on people, Titu said, “We are providing subsidised food assistance to 10 million people through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh and are considering proposals to expand this support in the future.”
“Efforts are underway to establish permanent locations for TCB dealers and to ensure some products are sold at their original prices alongside subsidised items.”
“Importantly, there have been no announcements about increasing commodity prices. On the contrary, we have announced reductions,”
The measures mentioned by Titu include:
Import duty at source for some products has been reduced from 2 per cent to 1 per cent., Milk powder import duty has been rationalised. Commodity tax will be reduced from time to time. The minimum VAT levied on 10 products has been withdrawn. Duty has been reduced on 10 products. Supplementary duty has been withdrawn on 19 products and reduced on 172 products. These taxes have been reduced gradually. Other charges which are there will be rationalised by the NBR in due course.
“As mentioned in the budget, we are also saying that inflation, especially the food inflation is comparatively higher due to the Ukraine-Russia war and a hike in commodity prices in the international market,” the state minister said.
