The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Finance Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday said the government was considering merger of Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Sangstha (BSRS) and Bangladesh Shilpa Bank (BSB) to strengthen their operation of similar nature."Talks on this issue are in progress," he told reporters, after

BSRS handed over to him a cheque for Tk 1 (one) crore as dividend for the year 2007 at the Ministry of Finance.

Replying to a question, Dr Aziz said the government did not step aside from the plan to offload some more shares of BSRS in the capital market.

BSRS managing director Hafiz Ul Islam said offloading of shares might be delayed as the government was considering otherwise about the two specialized banks for industrial credit.

He said the profit-making BSRS has given fresh efforts to strengthen its operation through motivating the staffers as well as reducing the classified loans and disbursement of fresh loans.

The Finance Adviser was asked whether the government was considering any measure to help people of the fixed income group to cope with price spiral, he said: "It remains under government's consideration, but when and what measures would be taken have not yet been decided."

When his attention was drawn to the demand of government officials and employees of providing 30 per cent to 50 per cent dearness allowance in the wake of recent price hike of essentials and serious inflationary pressure, he said he has not yet received any proposal in this regard.

He, however, said the government is aware about the problems of limited-income group of people, although there is still no good news for them from him.

The Finance Adviser was also asked about imposing different barriers to export rice from India, including overnight increase of minimum export price to US$650 per ton from US$505, as part of a conspiracy against Bangladesh.

The Adviser said he would not go into any conspiracy theory, rather he said they (India) might have problems internally; "one state to another" and "different states might have different interests".

Asked whether Bangladesh's diplomatic effort failed to facilitate the rice import, he said Bangladesh had discussions at different levels of Indian authorities.

Earlier, Asian Development Bank (ADB) country director Hua Du made a courtesy call on the Finance Adviser and reassured Bangladesh of the bank's continued support, particularly for the construction of Padma Bridge and energy sector.