Govt to take decision before next budget: Kamal
The government will need a decision on whether to utilize the country's forex reserves on development projects before the next gross annual budget is passed, according to Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
"Our reserves will cross $50 billion by 2030 but just a few per cent profit can be obtained by investing it beyond your country," he said throughout a procurement committee meeting held digitally yesterday.
"So, if we are able to use this money on government projects, it'll hopefully become more beneficial than in an international investment," Kamal said, adding that about $100 million was spent from the reserve over the last couple of months on the country's megaprojects.
The public procurement cabinet also approved five out of eight proposals while two were returned and the other was withdrawn.
It offers a proposal to buy 55,000 tonnes of urea fertiliser from Qatar and Saudi Arabia and 30,000 tonnes from Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company.
There is also a proposal to introduce 420-megawatt power plants that use solar technology in the remote regions of the Chattogram Hill Tracts and a 50-megawatt gas-based rental power plant in Kumargaon.
"There have been some queries on both of these projects which is discussed by the committee both before and during the next procurement committee meeting," said Cabinet Secretary Dr Abu Saleh Mostafa Kama.
The proposal that was withdrawn was from the street transport and highways department, about the collection of service charges through online banking channels.
In response to a query, the finance minister said a complete of $12 billion in remittance flowed in to the country between July 1 and December 15 of the ongoing fiscal.
This is for the reason that number of expatriate workers that use official channels to transfer their money has substantially increased following several government initiatives, including a two per cent cash incentive, he added.
Bangladesh's forex reserves hit a record high of $42.09 billion on December 15 this season although it was $32.11 billion on the same day in 2019.
