Govt protecting 12.6m people from hit of inflation: Kamal

The finance minister claimed on Thursday that inflation is under control and the government was trying to give social protection to low-income people from rising commodity prices. 

“The inflation rate was 12.3 percent when we assumed power. So, inflation has not increased that much compared to that level. Is any is starving in the country right now?” AHM Mustafa Kamal told the reporters after having a meeting with a Jica delegation.

“We are not counting inflation only with the sum of money. We’ve brought 12.6 million people under social safety net,” he said. “We’ve to give food to them who have no food to contain inflation. We’re giving food to them. We’ve to exempt their VAT and take less income tax for that. We’re focusing on that,” he added.   

In reply to a question that people are now in hardship because of rising commodity price, Kamal said: “General people are is hardship all over the world and we’re not out of the world. We’ve nothing to do. We’re trying to manage it with whatever tools we’ve.” 

With this, Bangladesh is in a good position, he claimed, adding: “We would have been happier had we been able to keep people in a better position.”

In reply to another question on whether Jica has made any new commitment, the finance minister informed that Jica team has come to see in what position their supported projects are now.

Some new projects will come, most of them will be technology related, he informed.  About Jica’s budget support he stated that Jica can help in some key areas of the budget.

In reply to another question as to when Bangladesh will be able to come out of austerity, he claimed that Bangladesh is in a better position compared to that of many countries in this global economic turmoil when three American banks have failed.

He also assured that Bangladesh will feel no pain in repaying IMF loan because the amount is only equal to the country’s two months’ inward remittances. According to him, Bangladesh took the IMF loan out of a fear that it might fall in a big trouble with the lingering war and growing trade deficits.

He also informed that Bangldesh achieved 6.94 percent average GDP growth in the last three fiscal years with FY22 witnessing a 7.10 percent growth.  Per-capita income also hit as high as $2,793 in FY22 although it slightly slipped to $2,765 in the following fiscal year, he added.

Although exports declined in FY21 to $38 billion, it jumped to $52 billion in the following year and rise further to $55 billion in the just-concluded FY23. Remittance, on the other hand, also hit a record $24 billion in 2020-21 fiscal year, he noted. Economic Relations Division Secretary Sharifa Khan, Jica’s Executive Senior Vice-President Yamada Junichi attended the meeting.