Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the authorities concerned to strengthen market monitoring system to control inflation especially the uptrend of price of essentials in the country. She came up with this directive while chairing a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday.
Authorities concerned must attach the topmost priority on controlling the inflation rate in the country against the backdrop of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic coupled with the Russia-Ukraine war and disruption of supply chain. It is urgently need to take more measures to bring down the price of essentials to tolerable level in the country in the wake of global economic context.
As part of the measures, the government has already discouraged the import of luxurious goods which are not very essential. So, dependency on imported goods is being reduced while consumption of local products and services is increasing.
The authorities concerned
must execute the prime minister’s
directives and strengthen market
monitoring system
Maintaining imports at a reasonable volume and keeping foreign reserves stable is now a great challenge due mainly to a stress on the exchange rate originating from the increased demand for US dollar in the local market. If the government makes savings and thus contribute to the national savings alongside reducing all the unnecessary expenses and cancel purchasing import-based luxurious goods and giving priority to buy only the necessary goods, it would be successfully able to overcome the tough time.
Market can be controlled through executive steps and policy steps while the government will have to undertake some steps like withdrawing VAT on some essential items alongside reducing the import duty.
The authorities concerned must execute the prime minister’s directives and strengthen the market monitoring system alongside conducting regular drives. We hope the government’s further steps will bring down prices of daily essentials and keep them at a tolerable level.