The government does not have an Aladdin's magic lamp in hand to bring back normalcy in the commodity prices immediately, Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin said today.

There is no switch to turn off to bring down the prices all on a sudden, he said.

Bangladesh has enough rice in stock to meet its demand, and the food ministry has taken step to import few more lakh tonnes of rice from Myanmar, Pakistan and India, the adviser said.

The government has already reduced rice import duty to 3 percent from the earlier 63 percent as part of efforts to increase its supply in the market, he said.

"The problem in the rice market is temporary and it is expected to be stabilised soon as the supply of rice will increase with the beginning of the next Boro season in April."

He acknowledged that the poor are facing difficulties because of a rise in the domestic prices of the staple food.

The prices will come down soon, as the food ministry is providing 50 lakh families with 30kg of rice each and state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh will start selling the item at a lower rate to 63 lakh smart cardholder families from this week, he said.

The interim government has revised the smart card numbers as largescale corruption and duplication took place when the previous government prepared the earlier one crore cards, he said.

Moreover, the government plans to issue 37 lakh additional smart cards, said the adviser.

Bashir Uddin made the comments while talking to journalists after a meeting with Turkish Trade Minister Ömer Bolat at the commerce ministry.

The adviser said Bangladesh and Turkey will hold joint economic commission meetings to discuss bilateral trade and investment potential.

Bangladesh exported goods worth $500 million to Turkey last year when the import figure stood at $450 million, he said.