No rise in agri subsidies

Subsidies in agriculture will remain static in the new fiscal as Finance Minister AMA Muhith in his budget speech on Thursday proposed continuing with the same amount of subsidy for fertiliser, seeds, irrigation and other agricultural inputs compared to that of the previous fiscal. However, the subsidy has declined in real sense if it is considered that a slight increase of Tk 342.84 billion in the total budget size has been proposed, not to mention that more than seven per cent inflation took over the fiscal, and that fuel prices increased several times, according to a news agency.