Food ministry saves Tk 382cr maintaining austerity

Staff Reporter :
The Food Ministry and its subordinate authorities have saved some Tk382.25 crore in six months (from July to December, 2022) by maintaining austerity in expensing the public fund and lessening the subsidy.
According to the estimate of the ministry officials, the amount of total savings would exceed Tk726.82 crore after completion of a year of austerity till June this year.
While exchanging views with media on Wednesday at the ministry’s conference room, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder disclosed the information.
He also urged the authorities concerned and country’s all people to maintain austerity and cutting unnecessary expenses to avert financial crisis in the country following the request of the Prime Minister.
While briefing about the cost cutting initiative, Food Secretary Ismail Hossain said that responding to the urge of the Prime Minister, the ministry has scrutinized the duplications in the list of beneficiaries of the government’s social safety net programmes.
“While scrutinized the list of Food Friendly Programmes (FFP) of the ministry from the government’s digital database, it was seen that more than 200,000 names of the beneficiaries are repeated. We have decided to give them options to choose one of the safety net programme. Due to their exclusion from the list, the ministry has saved some Tk 357.12 crore from wastage,” he said, adding that now the names of fresh beneficiaries would be included in the list of 50 lakh beneficiaries.
The secretary said the ministry has also saved some Tk 8 crore from the wheat crashing by the millers. Previously, the millers gave the government only 75kg to 77kg Atta by crashing 100kg of wheat. After negotiation, they have agreed to give 79kg Atta by crashing same quantity of wheat. At the fiscal year end till June this year, the amount of saving from the sector would increase at Tk 32 crore.
He also informed that the ministry has saved some Tk 86.7 lakh by selling the wastage of wheat crashing in the state-owned wheat crashing mill, ‘Sarkari Adhunik Moyda Mill’ after increasing its price by Tk 3 per kg. Till June this year, saving from the sector would increase at Tk 2.08 crore.
“We have increased price of Atta allocated for government’s ‘Open Market Sale (OMS) programme’ in a limited scale to lessen the amount of subsidy considering its skyhigh price. As a result, the ministry has saved some Tk 16.26 crore in last six months. After the FY end, the amount would be saved by Tk 97.53 crore. Same time, the subsidy will be reduced and would be used for further allocation,” he added.
Regarding the stock of food grain in the public godowns, Sadhan Chandra Majumder said that they have a record stock of grain in their godowns. The stock is now around 19.25 lakh tons. The ministry is working to increase its stocking capacity by renovating the godowns instead of building new as part of austerity.
He also urged the people to lessen the misuse of foods, which would also save huge amount of money as at least 15 percent of our food items are misused in our country due to our food habit.