Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed said on Sunday that bringing back the laundered money from abroad is a priority of the interim government and a taskforce has already been formed in this regard.
The government would need some technical assistance to repatriate the money which has been siphoned off from the country, he added.
Mr Ahmed indicated that technical assistance might be taken from the United States to this end.
"We've formed a taskforce to bring back the laundered money," the adviser told newsmen after a meeting of the Advisers' Council Committee on Government Purchase at Secretariat in the capital.
"Work has already started to bring back the laundered money," he said, replying to a query.
Asked whether a commission will be formed for the same purpose, the adviser refrained from any response.
Mr Ahmed said there is a national committee which is also working to bring back the laundered money.
Asked how much time it will take to bring back the money sent abroad, the adviser said there is no way to give a timeline.
Regarding the price spiral of essential commodities, the adviser said vegetables are seasonal produce the prices of which will come down soon.
He said the government is taking every possible measure to make the market stable.
The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) and other agencies are making efforts to ensure supply of daily commodities.
Also, he said the government has started selling agricultural produce at affordable prices under the Open Market Sale (OMS) programme in different areas of the capital to stabilise the market. The TCB, the Department of Agricultural Marketing and some other agencies are also selling daily commodities at fair prices, he added. The purchase committee at the meeting approved procurement of 5.5 million litres of soybean oil and 150,000 tonnes of fertilisers.
The committee gave go-ahead to the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) to buy 120,000 tonnes of DAP fertiliser from three companies in China, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.
The procurement will cost the exchequer Tk 8.72 billion. Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) has been approved to buy 30,000 tonnes of bulk granular urea fertiliser for Tk 1.29 billion from SABIC Agri-nutrients Company, Saudi Arabia.
The TCB has also been given approval to buy 5.5 million litres of soybean oil from City Edible Oil Ltd for Tk 868.4 million.
syful-islam@outlook.com