The cabinet committee meeting chaired by Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman decided that seven lakh tonnes of crude oil will be imported from Saudi Arabia and another seven lakh from the United Arab Emirates.

Islamic Development Bank (IDB) will partly finance the purchase and the government will provide the rest, Saifur told journalists.

The cabinet committee on purchase has also approved the land development proposal under Uttara Ideal Residential Town project at a cost of Tk 75 crore.

Earlier the committee declined to approve the land development project because of higher tender prices. The rejected tender proposals set Tk 247-Tk 250 for filling up per cubic metre while in the re-tender that was accepted yesterday the prices came down to Tk 157 -Tk 203 per cubic metre.

Under the project, 6,640 plots will be prepared and 40,000 flats built.