‘America First’ Policy! BNP Government to Buy Wheat at a Cost of 2.37 Billion Taka to Appease the United States**

❐ Special Correspondent

First of all, despite talking about the Bangladesh policy, Tarique Rahman’s BNP government has decided to import about 700,000 to 800,000 tons of wheat from the United States under the strategic pretext of bilateral trade agreements and reducing the trade deficit, without considering the market price of international open tenders.

This wheat, purchased at a price of about $24 per ton higher than the normal international tender price in the open market, is going to cost the Bangladeshi state treasury a total of about 236.9 million taka (236.91 crore taka).

At the current interbank exchange rate (1 dollar = 123.39 taka), the additional cost per ton is 2,961 taka, resulting in a general calculation of the government’s additional cost per kg of wheat of about 2.96 taka.

This government decision to purchase food grains at a huge cost higher than what is available on the open market is considered a gross economic waste by the common people.

The government claims that the protein content of this US wheat collected from US Wheat Associates is higher, superior to that of the international general market.

However, economists have calculated that if the additional 2.36 billion taka spent on wheat imports could have been used for internal development projects, it would have been possible to build a complete connecting road to the special economic zone, import about 50,000 tons of muriate of potash fertilizer, or digitalize 50 remote primary schools.

This additional pressure on the national budget, which pleases America while maintaining international geopolitical trade relations, has been met with fierce criticism since it was revealed.