Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said it is better to spend reserve money for the welfare of the people rather than sitting idle on it.

“We can’t sit idle with this (reserve) money, we have to spend it for the welfare of the people,” she said.

The prime minister said this while speaking at the oath taking ceremony of the newly elected Chairmen and members of the 59 Zila Parishads of the country at Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC).

Read more: Bangladesh’s forex reserves now $34.3 billion, as per IMF formula it’s $26.3 billion

While the PM administered the oath of the chairmen,  LGRD Minister Md Tajul Islam did it 623 members of the Zila Parishods.

The prime minister said that the government has spent the reserve money for the welfare and betterment of the common people.

In this connection she said that during the Coronavirus pandemic communication, transportation, import and everything was almost stalled. As a result the reserve money swelled to almost USD 48 billion.

She said that while the world was returning to normalcy at that time Ukraine-Russia war started followed by sanctions. “As a result, prices of every item have increased worldwide with higher transportation cost,” she said.

She said that notwithstanding the cost the government is importing everything to make those available to the common people.

Read more: Forex reserves still enough to cover 5 months' imports: PM

She said that the government is procuring food, fuel oil, gas, edible oil, wheat and corn at a very much higher price.

She said that through the one crore TCB cards the government is supplying essential items at a lower price, while 50 lakh people are getting rice at the rate of Tk 15 per kilogram.

“Those who are totally incapable, we are giving them food at free of cost,” she said.

She also said that the government is giving houses to the homeless people.

The PM said that the government has invested USD 8 billion for various purposes including infrastructural development works.

“We have utilised our own reserve money, we did not take loans from others,” she said.

She said the reserve money was given in loan to the Biman Bangladesh Airlines to procure aircraft. 

Read more: Bangladesh Bank will go slow in calculating reserves following IMF formula

Hasina said that the government is giving stimulus packages for the export-oriented industries.

Pointing to the BNP's severe propaganda regarding the reserve money she said that they will definitely do it as their leader Tarique Rahman has been  convicted in a money laundering case.

LGRD secretary Muhammad Ibrahim conducted the oath taking programme.