Govt will try to provide essentials at subsidized, fair prices to people: Ahsanul

State Minister for Commerce Ahsanul Islam Titu on Friday said that the government would try to continue providing essential items to common and low income group people at subsidized and fair prices through setting up permanent shops for the dealers of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).

"Members of some one crore family card holders are now enjoying the essential commodities of TCB at subsidized rates while there is an effort to increase such coverage in future," he said.

The State Minister for Commerce said this while replying to a question at a post-budget press conference at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital this afternoon.

Finance Minister AH Mahmood Ali moderated the press conference and replied various queries of reporters. Planning Minister Major General (retd) Abdus Salam, Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun, Agriculture Minister Md Abdus Shaheed, LGRD Minister Md Tajul Islam, Housing and Public Works Minister RAM Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury, Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel, Prime Minister's Economic Affairs Adviser Dr Mashiur Rahman, State Minister for Finance Waseqa Ayesha Khan, State Minister for Commerce Ahsanul Islam Titu, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder, NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem, Finance Division Secretary Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder accompanied and assisted the Finance Minister at the press conference.

Besides, State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad A Arafat, secretaries and other senior officials were present at the press conference.

Mentioning that the government has reduced the duty on imports of essentials like rice, lentil, chickpeas at 1 percent from 2 percent, Ahsanul said such move would help to keep the prices of such items at tolerable level.

He informed that the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) would continue monitoring of the markets as it is a continuous process. He said that the import duty and supplementary duty have been reduced on a good number of products to put an impact on the market.

Citing that the food inflation is still comparatively high in the country due to various reasons, the State Minister for Commerce said that efforts would be there to reduce further the inflation including food inflation.

Ahsanul said the prices of imported sugar and edible oil remain less compared to the previous year while the Ministry of Commerce's operations to monitor the market would continue.