Prominent parliamentarians, with their sights set on the upcoming general election, asked the finance minister Sunday to check the spike in rice prices.
At a pre-budget consultation, predominated by their concerns about other public-welfare activities, the lawmakers also asked for doing away with Food for Work programme as they questioned relevance of such food rationing in the current socioeconomic context of the country.
The budget-preparatory meeting of the finance minister, AMA Muhith, with the Parliamentary Standing Committees on Finance, Planning and Public Accounts was held at the NEC Auditorium in the city.
"The price of coarse rice should not be more than Tk 30 to Tk 35 per kg, given that the actual production cost of rice per kg is around Tk 22to 23," said Dr. Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Finance.
The view of the veteran parliamentarian and former food minister comes at a time when the price of rice is on an upturn on the domestic market.
Coarse rice was being sold at Tk 46-Tk 52, medium quality at Tk 55-Tk 60 and finer rice at Tk 65-Tk 72 a kilogram in the capital for the last one and a half weeks, trading sources said.
According to state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) data, rice prices have surged 32-40 per cent year on year.
Responding to this view, the finance minister, however, noted that the government estimate regarding the production cost of rice is much higher than what is cited by Razzaque.
The parliamentarians, during the meeting, also asked the finance minister to put an end to the 'Food for Work' programme as they termed it highly outdated in the current socioeconomic context of Bangladesh.
Regarding this observation, the finance minister, however, said the government has no plans to abolish the Food for Work programme before the next budget.
"However, the programme may witness some reforms during the next fiscal year," Mr Muhith told the lawmakers.
The parliament members also pointed at a sorry state of the grassroots-level hospitals across the country, noting that these establishments are severely lacking enough doctors and medical equipment despite rise in the number of patients.
They also called for upgrading all upazila-level 30-bed hospitals across the country to 50-bed ones.
Responding, the finance minister admitted that the local-level health establishments are lagging behind in terms of medical appliances.
"Nevertheless, community clinics have played an excellent role, especially in reducing maternal mortality," he said, adding: "Education and health would receive the highest priority in the next budget."
The lawmakers also said the net allocation that is provided to the parliament members each year should be allocated keeping in mind the area and population of their respective constituencies.
They also asked for increasing the allowance for old-age people while also improving the maintenance of road infrastructure and enhancing the rail communications between the capital, Dhaka, and the southern region.
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