"There is no angel in any ministry… corruption, more or less, is everywhere," he said during the question-answer session.

Describing corruption as a disease, Saifur said, "I can name the ministries one by one, from education ministry to communications, where corruption pervades."

He was replying to a supplementary question of Jatiya Party (Ershad) lawmaker Hafizuddin Ahmed.

Saifur, however, defended his ministry by saying that the NBR is suffering from scarcity of efficient tax officials as appointments to the department have been halted for the last few years.

"If I initiate actions against the corrupt (tax) officials the entire revenue division will become empty," he said. "I can't do this as I have to run the office."

"I have requested the establishment ministry to arrange special recruitment of tax officials immediately through the Public Service Commission," the minister informed the House.

As recruitment is on the hold for years, even peons have become tax officers, Saifur mentioned.

He however informed the House that various measures were taken to increase tax and VAT collection.

Replying to another question, Saifur told the House that Bangladesh received foreign loans and grants of $28,364 million since independence.

He said the loans were received with a nominal interest rate or service charge (only one percent or below) from development partners including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, Japan, USA, UK, Saudi Arabia and other countries.

Saifur strongly supported consultancy by development partners in foreign-aided projects and said, "We get quality work through their consultancy."

The finance minister made the comment when a lawmaker demanded cancellation of foreign consultancy in projects on the ground that consultants are gobbling up a good chunk of aid.

But the minister differed from this view and said, "Of the $28,364 million in foreign loans and grants so far received, only 2 percent has been spent on consultancy."

Referring to efficiency of the World Bank consultants in the recently completed Dhaka-Sylhet highway, Saifur said, "We have got a quality road as the World Bank consultants were involved in it. If the locals did this, the road would have become dilapidated by now."

The minister was optimistic that Bangladesh will become a mid-income level country after achieving the Millenium Development Goal by 2015 if the current trend of development continued.