The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh is set to expand its product list with five new essential items starting from November.
The five items slated to be added to the TCB product lineup are tea, salt, detergent and two types of soap.
The announcement was made by the commerce adviser Sk Bashir Uddin on Monday during a meeting held at the Ministry of Commerce conference room in the Secretariat in the city, said a press release.
This expansion is part of a sustained governmental effort to streamline TCB operations, provide relief to the poor and help control the rising cost of living.
The government currently provides a subsidy of approximately Tk聽5,000 crore to operate TCB鈥檚 activities.
During the meeting, Sk Bashir Uddin emphasized that this funding helps create equality in market demand and supply.
He said the introduction of the five new products, alongside TCB鈥檚 current sales activities, will offer greater relief to impoverished citizens and play a role in controlling price inflation.
The Commerce Adviser called upon responsible officials to be proactive in correctly selecting the one crore beneficiaries targeted by the programme.
He said that the TCB Smart Family Card should reach genuine beneficiaries.
He highlighted that the basis for receiving the card should be the individual鈥檚 identity as a poor or helpless person who deserves government cooperation.
The Adviser urged for visible progress in the selection of beneficiaries and the activation of cards across the entire country, including the city corporations, within the next one month.
At the meeting, commerce secretary Mahbubur Rahman said that identifying the correct beneficiary is the main problem emerging during the selection process.
The Secretary also mentioned that the pace of activities within the City Corporations has been somewhat slow.
Despite these challenges, he expressed optimism that the work would be completed quickly now that the problems have been identified.
