The government's decision to suspend purchase of new and replacement vehicles under all expenses has been extended for the remaining half of the current fiscal year to reduce unnecessary expenditure in the face of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

This goes for government, semi-government, autonomous and other agencies until June 30, 2021, says a finance ministry circular issued on Thursday.

The ministry had previously decided to halt purchase of new vehicles under all operating and development expenses until December 31, 2020.

The economic devastation resulting from the pandemic-induced lockdowns has compelled the government to embrace austerity.

At an Ecnec meeting last week, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked for dropping unnecessary expenses alongside projects deemed not necessary under current circumstances.

She asked ministries to cautiously undertake new projects as the government would have to spend a considerable amount of money to procure Covid-19 vaccines to immunise the whole nation.

Earlier in July the government had decided to put a hold on implementing low-priority development projects amidst widening revenue shortfalls.

It was to free up funds for productive sectors and allocate additional money for those combating the pestilence.

The cost-cutting would continue during this fiscal year as there is no sign of the contagion petering out.

The government allocates fund for purchasing vehicles against almost all projects under the Annual Develop Programme (ADP). On an average, 400 new projects are incorporated under the ADP.

As winter creeps in, new Covid-19 infections have been increasing for the past three weeks.

At least 13,218 samples were tested across the country in the last 24 hours, putting the current positivity rate at 12.60 per cent while total positivity rate at 16.68 per cent.

Meanwhile, 2,552 patients have recovered.

Since March, 477,545 people got infected in Bangladesh till date. The number of recoveries stands at 395,960, with the recovery rate being 82.92 per cent.

There have been 6,838 deaths in the last eight months. The death rate stands at 1.43 per cent.

Against this backdrop the government has sought funds from development partners to help the health ministry.

The finance ministry estimates that $2 billion might be needed to vaccinate the nation of 165 million.

Initially, the government aims to buy three crore doses at $5 apiece. The finance ministry has so far released Tk 735 crore for the health ministry.

Recently, the finance ministry has softened the stance on disbursement of funds from the ADP for low-priority projects bowing down to pressures from the line ministries and also because of improvements in revenue collection.

The government had also planned to ban foreign tours of government officials as part of the austerity measures, but such an order would not be necessitated because of the pandemic.

STAFF OUTSOURCING BARRED

The finance ministry has issued a directive barring outsourcing through public and private universities for hiring employees of salary grades 11 to 20 for all ministries and government offices.

No fund allocation or proposal can be sent for such outsourcing-based recruitment as per a government decision, said a ministry circular.

The new decision has turned null and void an October 2019 circular on outsourcing for such grades, it said.