The present economic crisis facing the country has not only sent the lives of a great number of people to the breaking point with private small businesses performing badly, it has also hugely affected the profit of the state enterprises. Quoting the Bangladesh Economic Review 2022, a national daily yesterday reported that the profit of state-owned enterprises in Bangladesh have fallen this year to their lowest in the last nine years. Experts attribute this slump in the profit to higher commodity prices in the global market and government’s plan to make available essentials among the poor and low-income groups at subsidised rates through TCB’s truck sale for example.
The figure of this fall in profit is shattering. The net profit of 49 state-owned companies has nosedived to a whopping 81 per cent year-on-year to Tk 2,867 crore in the outgoing fiscal year. In the previous year, their profit stood at Tk 15,159 crore.
The recent 22.78 per cent price hike of gas was made by Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) as Petrobangla’s profit has declined by 17 per cent. According to authorities, this adjustment was necessary to keep the price in line with the global rates. Whatever may be the reason, it is common people who are suffering more from this price hike in this hard time of economy. Among the state-owned enterprises, the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission that made the highest profit of Tk 2,651 crore has also seen a decrease of 20 per cent of profit from a year ago.
The enterprise that has made the greatest loss is the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB). Its loss has increased by more than 283 per cent to Tk 1,158 crore in FY22. But the loss was only Tk 302 crore last year. Despite the current economic reality, it is not understandable why the profit of SoEs should go down as economic activities have rebounded from the pandemic in the ongoing fiscal year compared to a year ago.
However, for making the poor and the lower income groups of people survive, the government must give subsidies, but what is of utmost importance at this moment is curbing corruption and pilferage. The point here is if this could have been made effectively in the past with a strong hand instead of letting the concerned people do these practices for political reasons, Bangladesh’s economy would not have faced this dire situation now.
