Govt cancels foreign travels sine die

Staff Reporter :
In the wake of current global economic conditions, the government has cancelled all kinds of foreign travels by the officers and employees sine die.
Even the officials of the autonomous/semi-autonomous bodies, public sector corporations and state-owned companies are also not allowed for foreign travels at their own expense, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.
“Following the current global economic situation, the foreign travels by all government officials have been cancelled till further order,” a notice signed by Deputy Secretary of Finance Ministry Md. Touhidul Islam said.
However, the notice has allowed the foreign travel with due permission from the concerned authority for the following cases: if the person is doing course for Masters and PhD degrees at the expense of foreign government/organisation/development partner/university; and if the person takes part in specialised/professional training/seminar at the expense of foreign government/organisation/development partner.
Earlier in May, the Finance Ministry issued such an order to restrict foreign travels for all officers in government, semi-government, and autonomous organisations alongside government banks and financial institutions.
Then the ministry instructed to cancel all foreign trips from the government exchequer.
Then such a decision was taken to cut the pressure on foreign reserves and to address the rising dollar crisis in the country.
The government has been taking various austerity measures to save the falling trends of foreign reserves as the remittance flow through legal channels has been dwindling and the export index is declining.
The ruling Awami League government has been trying to take a number of
stopgap measures to rein the expenditure to keep the foreign reserves healthy.
But the internal gas and electricity crisis have been putting mounting pressures on the industrial productions and this is also hitting the basket of the economy from different angles.