Parliamentary committees on finance and commerce remain silent

The Russia-Ukraine war has created a fresh crisis in the global economy and Bangladesh bears the brunt too. The taka is being repeatedly devalued against the dollar and reserves are dropping. Discussions abound about the rise in import costs and a possible economic crisis, but the parliamentary standing committee on the finance ministry remains mute. This committee’s last meeting was held on 26 December last year.

The parliamentary standing committee on the commerce ministry is equally silent. It has not held any meeting since last February. Yet in the meantime, over the past three months, the people have been thrust into a crisis with the spiralling prices of rice, lentils, edible oil and all sorts of essential commodities. Much is being said about the failure of the commerce ministry to control market prices, but the parliamentary committee has nothing to say.

Meanwhile, after around five months, the parliamentary standing committee on the finance ministry is holding a meeting today, Monday. However, the present state of the economy is not on the agenda of the meeting. Sources of the parliamentary secretariat said that that the agenda for the meeting includes approving the minutes of the last meeting, scrutinising the ‘payment and settlement systems bill’ and miscellaneous topics. However, if any member of the committee wants, they can raise any issue as a miscellaneous topic.

The parliamentary standing committee on the finance ministry has 10 members including the finance minister. Two of the members are of the opposition, one being Jatiya Party’s Rana Mohammad Sohel and the other BNP’s Harunur Rashid.

Speaking to Prothom Alo over mobile phone on Sunday night, MP Harunur Rashid said, the parliamentary committee should certainly discuss the state of the economy. He said that even though the meeting has been called after five long months, he is unable to join the meeting today, Monday, as he did not receive the notice in time. He said he only received news of the meeting yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. By then he had already left Dhaka and was on the way to his home constituency in Chapainawabganj. He said, till the evening no letter was sent to his office about the meeting. He only heard that the meeting had been summoned basically to discuss a certain bill.