The New Nation - Internet Edition

THE finance adviser has not made any new proposal in the proposed national budget for the next fiscal year to contain inflation and reiterated merely the measures already taken in the current year. The adviser, however, said the government has undertaken a 'Dal-Bhat Programme' through the Bangladesh Rifles and would continue the open market sale of subsidised essentials to curb inflation besides withdrawal of customs duty on imports of foodgrains and edible oil. He also mentioned that steps like increasing food grain imports, lowering the interest rate for import credit for foodgrains, undertaking of market monitoring on a regular basis.

In his budget speech last week the finance adviser mentioned the measures taken already by the government to keep inflation low. But he admitted that the fixed income-group people is hard pressed and is facing hardship due to high inflation increasing from the abnormal price hike in both international and domestic markets. Medium-term measures like increase of production and distribution of foodgrains through creation of wholesale markets in various places including Dhaka and taking initiatives for introducing Consumers' Rights Protection Ordinance can also be mentioned.

The Bangladesh Bank is also pursuing a 'production-oriented' and 'market-friendly' monetary policy to contain prices at tolerable levels. With the current Boro harvest coupled with the forecast of increased global food grain production by the second half of the current year, the average inflation would hopefully come down. Just to provide relief, a 20 per cent pay-hike as dearness allowance for the government officials and employees has been proposed to be effective from July 1. Global food production has not increased commensurate with the scale of demand across the world including the countries like Bangladesh that are pressed with acute food problems.