Govt won't allow shortage of essentials: Salehuddin

The interim government will see to it that there is no shortage of any essential commodity even though there are financial constraints, said Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed yesterday.

"We have been repeatedly saying that we will not allow people to suffer for a shortage of essential commodities," he said after a meeting of the advisers' council on government purchases at the Bangladesh Secretariat.

The council approved proposals to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG), granular urea fertiliser, sugar, chickpea, and soybean oil.

Ahmed said fertiliser, sugar, chickpea, and soybean were very important commodities.

As the per the proposal, the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh will buy 5,000 tonnes of sugar from City Sugar Industries Ltd, a concern of local commodity giant City Group, at Tk 120.92 per kilogramme.

It will be distributed among low-income people at subsidised prices.

The state agency will purchase 10,000 tonnes of chickpea at Tk 107.39 per kilogramme from two Australia-based firms -- DSL Pacific Pty Ltd (4,000 tonnes) and Aust-Grain Exports PTY Ltd (6,000 tonnes).

In addition, the committee approved the purchase of 32.60 lakh litres of soybean oil at Tk 163.15 per litre, according to meeting documents.

It also gave the go-ahead for the purchase of two different cargoes of LNG at $14.5 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) and $14.65 per mmbtu.

For this, US-based Excelerate Energy LP has to be paid a total of Tk 1,355 crore.

The council approved the industries ministry's proposal on the purchase of 90,000 tonnes of urea, a key ingredient for producing the dry Boro season paddy, from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company Limited (Kafco).

As per the plan, the industries ministry will buy 30,000 tonnes of granular urea from Qatar at $366 per tonne.

Another 30,000 tonnes will be purchased from Saudi Arabia at $382.6 per tonne. Moreover, Kafco will supply 30,000 tonnes at $365.37 a tonne to the government.

The total cost will be around Tk 400 crore, according to the purchase committee.