The state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) has resumed a campaign to sell essential items at a discounted price to some one crore low-income families for the current month of the year.Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi inaugurated the drive at a TCB dealer shop in the capital’s Agargaon Tuesday. Senior Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh, TCB Chairman Brig Gen Md Ariful Hasan, local DNCC councilor Haji Md Forkan Hossain and other high officials of the Commerce Ministry and the TCB were present on the occasion.
A family card holder is allowed to buy one kilogram (kg) of sugar at Taka 60, two-kg of lentil at Taka 70 per kg and two litres of soybean oil at Taka 110 per litre once a month under the initiative. Speaking on the occasion, the Commerce Minister said the world is trying to tackle various crises and recessions triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic. “But Bangladesh is in a comparatively better position to tackle the situation than other countries in the region,” he said.
Tipu said the commerce ministry had previously planned to sell essential goods at subsidized prices to some 50 lakh families, but the programme was expanded following the directive of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He informed that some one crore families across the country are getting such essential items for once in a month benefitting some five crore people.
The Commerce Minister said such operations of the TCB for the low-income group people would continue until the situation comes to a normalcy although the government had to provide Taka 5,000 crore as subsidy per year for such purpose.Tipu said Bangladesh has become a developing country after successfully graduating from the LDCs adding that materialization of Bangabandhu’s ‘Sonar Bangla’ is a matter of time if the ongoing pace of development continues.
He also expressed his high hope that Bangladesh would attain the SDGs by 2030 and thus become a developed country by 2041.
