Govt to appoint firm at Tk 17.5cr for TCB smart cards

The government is going to appoint a company at a cost of Tk 17.5 crore to give smart cards to one crore poor families so that they can buy various essential commodities at subsidised rates from the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).

State-run Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Company (IIFC) will enable the TCB to sell commodities such as edible oil and sugar to the cardholders through apps.

This was decided at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) at the National Economic Council in the city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar yesterday.

The meeting, chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, also decided to buy 50 lakh litres of rice bran oil from two concerns of the Majumder Group of Industries at Tk 80 crore under direct procurement method.

The purchase committee also gave the go-ahead to an energy and mineral resources proposal to buy liquified natural gas from the spot market.

As per the decision, the government will buy a 67.2 metric million British thermal units (MMBTU) from Gunvor Singapore Pte Ltd at Tk 1,152 crore from the spot market in two lots.

The prices of the LNG in one lot of 33.5 MMBTU is $12.98 per MMBTU and the another lot is $13.85, according to the meeting documents.

The CCGP also approved three proposals for the import of fertiliser by Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC).

The state agency will buy 25,000 tonnes of triple superphosphate fertiliser at Tk 91 crore from Tunisia. The BADC will purchase 30,000 tonnes of the same fertiliser and 40,000 tonnes of diammonium phosphate (DAP) from Morocco at over Tk 316 crore under a state-to-state contract.

Among others, the CCGP approved a proposal from Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha for construction of high-rise flats at Purbachal new town for low-income people on the basis of a public-private partnership.