The Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was passed in Parliament yesterday to further amend Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission Act, 1992.

The amendment bill was placed to change the name of the "secretary" post of Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission to "director".

State Minister for Commerce Ahasanul Islam Titu moved the bill, and it was passed by voice vote, however, multiple lawmakers criticised it.

Jatiyo Party MP Hafiz Uddin Ahmed said the work of the commerce ministry is to control commodity prices.

If the ministry brought any law to control the market, or if they had brought any law to break syndicates, then it could be said the commerce ministry is doing a good job, said Hafiz. "It [commerce ministry] tries to control the market at times, and things become fine then. But things return to how they were after the ministry leaves."

Independent MP Pankaj Nath said the bill is not in the interest of the people. People's interests would be served if the Tariff Commission was tasked with determining the prices of consumer goods, daily commodities, availability in the market, coordination of imports and production and making it easy for the people, he said.

He criticised bringing the bill to parliament just to change a word, saying, "It is a waste of time and money to call 350 MPs of parliament to change the name of the position from secretary to director."