Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque on Friday said they are expecting that the commodity prices would come down in the next fiscal as the prices have started declining in the international market.
“Overall we are expecting that our many things would be stable and the commodity prices in the coming year,” he said at a post-budget press conference arranged by the finance ministry in the city’s Bangabandhu International Conference Center.
The minister was replying to a question from reporters over the government’s steps to curb commodity prices in the coming fiscal.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday unveiled the Tk 7,61,785 crore proposed national budget for FY24 in parliament.
Razzaque said fuel prices have declined in the international market, while prices of other goods have started going down.
He said the government will make all sorts of efforts to support low-income people like rickshaw and van pullers to maintain the living standard.
In reply to another question, the agriculture minister said labour wage went high in the country which reflects the improvement of life and livelihood in Bangladesh.
He said irrigation, seeds and fertilisers used to cause higher costs for farmers in the past. But now the labour wage causes higher costs. Besides, the working hours of a day labourer declined, he added.
30 million jobs generated
LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Md Tazul Islam said some 30 million jobs were generated in the last one and a half decades.
He said the number of the country’s employed people was 4,73,00,000 in 2007, which is now 7,11,00,000. So, some three crore jobs were arranged, he said replying to a question over employment generation.
The LGRD minister said the unemployment rate is now 3.2 in Bangladesh. So, the situation in Bangladesh is better than that in many other countries, he added.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Education Minister Dipu Moni, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder and National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem answered different questions related to the proposed budget in the press conference.
Besides, Planning Minister MA Mannan, Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun, PM's Economic Affairs Adviser Mashiur Rahman, Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain and Finance Secretary Fatima Yasmin, among others, were present.
