STAR BUSINESS REPORT

The government is turning the one crore family cards, which are used by low-income groups to buy essentials at subsidised rates, into smart cards to fix loopholes, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said yesterday.

“The process of converting the hand-written family cards into smart cards is underway,” he said at the inauguration of the second phase of the sales of goods by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) in the capital’s Uttara, according to a press release of the commerce ministry.

Some anomalies in the hand-written cards could easily be resolved if they are converted into smart cards with QR code features, he added.

A pilot project has already been completed to turn the hand-written cards into smart ones in the areas under the Dhaka North City Corporation, the Narayanganj City Corporation and the Barishal City Corporation, said the press release.

State-run TCB usually sells essentials such as soybean oil, lentil, onion, and sugar among one crore families across the country at lower prices once a month. Each cardholder is eligible to buy one kilogramme of sugar, two kgs of lentil, two litres of soybean, and two kgs of onion.

But the agency will sell the essentials twice this Ramadan as low-income households have kept feeling the pinch of higher inflation.

Inflation in Bangladesh climbed to 8.78 per cent in February, breaking a five-month declining trend. It surged to a 10-year high of 9.52 per cent in August, driven by higher commodity prices in the global markets.