Dhaka, Sep 11 (IANS): The Bangladeshi government on Sunday launched a special sales drive of essentials at subsidised rates across the South Asian country to help millions of low-income families cope with soaring prices.

Senior Secretary of Bangladesh's Commerce Ministry, Tapan Kanti Ghosh inaugurated the special sales drive at a dealer point in the national capital Dhaka.

The drive run by the state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) is aimed at selling essentials at subsidised prices for 10 million low-income families across the country, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Bangladeshi government earlier said only cardholders will be able to buy the items from TCB-designated dealers and other permanent sales points concerned.

Under the drive, each of the cardholders will get two litres of cooking oil, two kilograms of lentils, one kilogram of sugar and two kilograms of onions.

To ease the burden of low-income families, the government launched the special drive for delivering basic commodities to selected families as higher energy and commodity prices are pushing up inflation in the country.