Govt reduces ration subsidy of 10 entities including army, police

The government has decided to raise the prices of rice and wheat for employees of 10 government institutions, who get the food items as part of their rations, effective from the next fiscal year.

The revision of prices, to be effective from July 1 this year, is taking place 33 years after the rates fixed as the government now plans to lessen subsidy spending as suggested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said finance ministry officials.

The ministry of finance recently issued a circular in this regard citing that the prices of the two ration items would be 20 per cent of their economic prices for the next fiscal year.

The finance division will inform the concerned government institutions of the economic prices of rice and wheat at the beginning of the fiscal year.

According to finance division officials, the price of rice is set at Tk 11 per kg while the wheat price is Tk 12 per kg for the next fiscal year. Presently the employees of the 10 government institutions pay between Tk 1.09 and Tk 1.80 to buy a kg of rice and wheat respectively.

The 10 government institutions are -- Special Security Force (SSF), Directorate of National Security Intelligence (NSI), the Armed Forces Division (Army, Navy, and Air Force), Bangladesh Police, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), Directorate of Ansar and Village Defense Party, Anti-Corruption Commission, Directorate of Prisons, Department of Fire Service and Civil Defence and Department of Narcotics Control, the circular mentioned.

Mentionable, a family of four members gets 35 kg of rice and 30 kg of wheat flour at the rate of Tk 1.9 to Tk 2.10 per month. Apart from this, they get 5 kg of sugar at the rate of Tk 3 per kg, 8 kg of lentils at the rate of Tk 1.20 per kg and 8 liters of soybean oil at the rate of Tk 2.30 per liter.

Depending on the size of the family, each officer-employee getting this ration benefit . Even after retirement, they enjoy this benefit for lifetime.

Due to increase in price of rice and wheat, the amount of subsidy will decrease slightly. In the proposed budget of the next financial year, an allocation of Tk 7,360 crore has been kept for food subsidy.