Rejaul Karim Byron

The government initiative to import rice from different sources to beef up the stock and keep the prices stable is yet to see any significant progress.

Bangladesh’s foreign currency reserves may average $34 billion in the next fiscal year, which is enough to cover 4.7 months’ import bills, said the American credit rating agency Fitch yesterday.

Wholesale and retail establishments that saw their business crippled by Covid-19 may have enjoyed some recovery alongside the return to economic normalcy but the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war now threatens to offset their gains amid global inflationary pressure.

The government’s foreign debt repayment has become costlier owing to the sharp depreciation of the taka against the US dollar in recent months.

Revenue collection by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) witnessed robust growth of 21 per cent in the July-August period of the current fiscal year thanks to the devaluation of taka, high inflationary pressure and expansion of the economy.

Bangladesh’s request for additional budget support of $1 billion from the World Bank is unlikely to come through this fiscal year, dashing the government’s hope of meeting a portion of the budget deficit with cost-effective funding.

The ongoing Household Income and Expenditure Survey is giving special emphasis to gauging Bangladesh’s food security in keeping with the global food shortage sown by the pandemic and turbocharged by the Ukraine war.

Bangladesh’s external debt repayment obligation will double in the next three years, according to data of the Economic Relations Division (ERD).

That development projects in Bangladesh are rarely completed on time and within the original budget is well established by now.

The government has been deprived of about Tk 4,697 crore for 19 counts of irregularities by Petrobangla and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, found an audit.

The state coffer is at least Tk 2,258.76 crore short, thanks to Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited’s failure to deposit the sum for mismanagement, shows audit report.

Foreign assistance utilisation by the government has gone up by 1.57 per cent year-on-year during the first two months of the current fiscal year, thanks to improvements in the use of project aid. 

The World Bank has set forth 12 conditions for extending budget support of about $1.5 billion to Bangladesh over the next three years.

The government is taking up a fresh Tk 7,188 crore project to build a four-lane highway from Cumilla to Brahmanbaria that would improve connectivity between the port city and Sylhet and also make the transshipment arrangements with India more practicable.

The cost of the already delayed elevated expressway project in Chattogram city is likely to rise by Tk 1,048 crore and the deadline extended by two more years as a proposal in this regard is set to be placed before an Ecnec meeting today.

The Finance Division has urged all government offices to rein in hasty expenditures at the end of each fiscal year as it destroys fiscal discipline and increases the government’s borrowing cost.

As the Covid-induced lockdown was taking a heavy toll on the poor back in 2020, the food directorate sold rice at subsidised rates under special and regular Open Market Sale programmes across the country.

The Asian Development Bank would be providing $9.05 billion over the next three years, up 84.7 percent from the preceding three years, as the Manila-based lender is mobilising greater resources to prepare the country well for graduation from the LDC bracket in 2026.

Public hospitals in the capital purchased medical equipment at astronomical prices during the first four months of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, according to an audit report. 

The much-talked-about transshipment facility for Indian goods to its landlocked northeastern states using Bangladesh’s two seaports and inland waterways, roads and rail network has failed to take off in a big way due to the absence of proper infrastructure and awareness.