Prices of essentials
The ruling Grand Alliance committed in their election manifesto to bring down prices of essential items within the reach of common people. With that end in view they provided additional subsidy of taka two thousand crore to urea fertiliser soon after coming to power. But in reality, prices of rice and wheat have gone up despite the bumper crop.
A few days ago it was decided to provide another additional subsidy of nearly seven hundred crore to two other varieties of fertilisers. It is doubtful whether this will yield any result at the consumer level. Total annual subsidy given to fertiliser at the moment runs to about four thousand crore taka. Major decisions were made without proper thought, evaluation and analysis. So these four thousand crore are practically going down the drain for whimsical decisions of the govt.
Had this amount been spent for developing rural infrastructures, building primary and secondary schools, vocational schools, power plants, etc., its impact on the economy would have been tremendous. Just because the govt. is elected does not mean that it can misuse public fund. So it is high time that the govt was bold enough and withdrew this subsidy, which is not contributing to public welfare. A team of experts may be appointed to analyse, evaluate and make the right recommendation on the subject.
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