"If possible, the duty may be set at zero for some essentials to bring down their prices in the domestic market," he said.

The import duty on rice is significantly higher whereas productivity is low, he said. "The government should reduce the duty on the import of rice until productivity goes up."

Similar to moves in the 2022-23 fiscal year, the government has continued in the outgoing financial year to sell sugar, lentils, edible oil, onions and some other products to families at subsidized rates through the state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.

Mustafa K. Mujeri, a former chief economist of Bangladesh Bank, said the product quantity and number of beneficiaries should be increased and the leakage in the distribution system needs to be eliminated.

"The real poor should be targeted while selling the food items at lower rates," he said.

He also urged the government to put an end to collusion in the supply chain so that dishonest commodity traders cannot conspire to gain an unfair market advantage and hurt low-income households.

THE DAILY STAR