"The whole country will never come under electricity coverage through the Rural Electrification Board (REB). Solar power is an epoch-making step in this regard," he told a function here.

The finance and planning minister was inaugurating a private solar power unit at village Korney in Rajnagar Upazila.

With this new one, total solar power units across the country stood at 10,000, each costing around Tk 27,000. Any individual can have a unit of solar power in an installment system of payment in three years.

The minister considered the unit cost high and disclosed the government's plan for providing subsidy. He said 70 percent of the population remained without electricity.

At another function yesterday afternoon, Saifur accused the opposition political parties of spreading propaganda despite the country having a robust economic situation.

He was inaugurating the Saifur Rahman Bhaban at Rajnagar Degree College in the Upazila headquarters.

"The opposition is hindering the ongoing development process through calling 'hartal' and peddling propaganda at home and abroad," the minister said.

He told his audience that hartal is being called without any logic behind such disruptive action.

The main opposition Awami League has called a countrywide dawn-to-dusk shutdown for January 3.