Govt didn’t waste a single penny from reserves: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said her government spent all money in the best interests of the citizens.

"The Awami League government does not waste a single paisa of the country -- it spends every penny for the interest and welfare of the people," she said while inaugurating the construction work of the 24-kilometre-long Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway virtually from her official residence Ganabhaban.

Hasina's comment came after BNP leaders raised questions about the fast depletion of foreign currency reserves.

As of November 9, foreign currency reserves stand at $34.3 billion, down 23.8 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the Bangladesh Bank.

"No paisa from the reserves is misappropriated. This fear is always in their (BNP's) mind -- BNP will say this. The reason for this is that their leader Tarique Zia has been convicted for seven years and fined Tk 20 crore in a money laundering case. He is now an absconding criminal."

Reserves are being used to pay for imports and Covid-19 vaccines and also for investment purposes, she said.

The government had to purchase the Covid-19 vaccines and coronavirus test kits with the reserves. The vaccines and tests were made available to the masses for free,

"Developed countries did not even administer the Covid-19 vaccines to their citizens free of cost."

Planes were purchased for state-owned Bangladesh Biman Airlines, she said, adding that rivers were dredged too with the reserves.

The government has also formed an Export Development Fund with reserves to provide low-cost loans to exporters in dollars.

"If we use our own dollars through Sonali Bank, that money remains in our country. Keeping that in mind we have given $8 billion," she said, adding that Bangladesh lent $200 million to Sri Lanka when they were in a deep economic crisis.

BNP is trying to spread propaganda across the country about the depleted reserves, she said.

When BNP was in power, foreign exchange reserves were only $2.9 billion. From 2001 to 2008, it increased to $5 billion only.

"From that position, we were able to raise that to about $48 billion."

The prices of food, fuel, edible oil, wheat, lentil and corn have increased around the world. "We are importing those," she said.

While Bangladesh is a self-reliant country in food production, it has to import rice using the reserves as the paddy fields were badly damaged during the recent flood and cyclone.

"No one has fled with money from the foreign reserves. We are Awami League and we have liabilities to the people as Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman dedicated his entire life to give the masses an improved and beautiful life."

Regarding the apprehension of food scarcity in the coming days, she requested all to utilise every inch of land for food production to avert any kind of food-related crisis.