Authorities in Bangladesh tend to withhold many things instead of performing those on time. That’s why it had to double the salary of government employees in the 8th pay commission. The same happened with foreign currency exchange rate. In the past 10 years, taka has been devalued against the US Dollar by only 22 per cent whereas Indian Rupee has been devalued by 47 per cent. I’m talking about the calculation before the emergence of current chaotic situation. That means the prices of all types of fuel but Kerosene should have been increased earlier. As a result, when the price had to increase it had to done by a huge margin. If this adjustment had been done over the last three years, the government did not have to increase the price by such a huge margin at one go. But this was withhold thinking people would suffer. That’s why the political government had no other way but to increase the price by such a margin now.

I don’t think the price of fuel oil has been increased just to avail loan from the IMF (International Monetary Fund). I also don’t think any other country in the world is in such a dire strait like us regarding the tax-GDP ratio. That also had to be taken into account. That is also a reason for raising the price in such a manner. But BPC (Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation) has to be put under pressure to take 50 per cent of profit for the government.

People are now going to suffer for the inefficiency that has in revenue collection. I have been talking for a long time to stop money laundering. The situation is so bad now that even the high echelon of the government is also saying, probably money and wealth are being siphoned out of the country. That’s why import is rising so fast. Even the remittance income could not cover the deficit in dealings in 2021-22 financial year like the previous times. Money laundering is a huge problem. Around USD 6-7 billion is being laundered every year, says a calculation of Washington-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI).