Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday discounted a claim that the coronavirus pandemic has made up to  2.5 crore new poor in the country.   “I don’t believe that 2-2.5 crore people are now below the poverty line. I need to know from where some research organizations have collected the figure”, he told a reporter after attending a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase. Read: ARTICLE 19 lauds tax exemption move for 3rd gender citizens in proposed budget He said the government has its own research bodies and they are now working on it. “I will look into it when the government bodies complete their findings”. He said no figure will be acceptable before the government’s own research bodies’ present their findings.   Read: JS passes Tk 13,987.27 cr supplementary budget Defending the proposed national budget for fiscal 2021-22, the finance minister said his budget has no weak points. Trashing the comments of some economists that the budget has failed to address the problems of corona-affected low income groups, he said everything in the budget is strong. Read: New budget proposals inadequate in tackling poverty, say rights groups “You will see the results of the budget that it would serve the interest of poor people when implementation starts”, he said. He said he has followed the Prime Minister’s instruction to bring the poor people within the mainstream of the economy.    

The South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) on Saturday said the percentage of the population living below the poverty line (upper poverty line) has nearly doubled from 21.6% in 2018 to 42% in 2020, while the percentage of extreme poor (lower poverty line) trebled from 9.4% in 2018 to 28.5% in 2020.