"We will consider providing funds for the BPC and continuing the present state of fuel prices," Finance and Planning Adviser Akbar Ali Khan told reporters after a meeting with IMF Resident Representative Jonathan C Dunn.

Sources said the IMF urged the caretaker government to increase fuel prices for a three-month period, but the adviser told the IMF representative that instead of increasing fuel prices, the government will allocate funds for the BPC from the Tk 1,200 crore block allocation of the budget.

The IMF has been asking the government since long to increase the fuel prices and introduce the oil pricing formula to reduce the gap between the fuel prices on local and international markets that has caused the BPC's huge losses.

The immediate past BNP-led four-party alliance government had pledged to the IMF to introduce the oil pricing formula by the end of the current fiscal.

The IMF also asked for bringing a number of reform agendas during the interim government's rule, including corporatisation of the nationalised commercial banks.

But, Adviser Akbar Ali Khan said the caretaker government will not take any "politically sensitive" decision and will rather leave the matters to the next elected government.

Referring to the meeting, he said the IMF representative also raised the issue of higher government expenditure than the revenue income.

"The IMF suggested us to reduce government expenditures and we have already taken a number of measures," Akbar told reporters.

The BNP-led government borrowed Tk 4,300 crore from the banking sector in the first four months of the current fiscal to meet huge expenditures. But the growth in revenue income decreased during the same period with a meagre 9 percent against the 20 percent as targeted in the budget.

Sources said the meeting also discussed release of the seventh instalment of the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) funds and decided to begin a formal discussion in December.

As the previous government failed to meet its conditions, the IMF partially cut the sixth instalment of PRGF funds, releasing $48.64 million, which is half of the instalment.