Dhaka: Netizens of Bangladesh specially the journalists have been giving sharp reactions on the social media site Facebook over the Finance Minister's comment on the implementation of wage board for journalists.

Solaiman Salman, staff correspondent of The Daily Sun, wrote "If he (Finance Minister) had got little more time, he would have said there is no need for journalists in the country. Because if there is no journalist, he will not have to face problems to impose excise duty and illogical VAT on country's people."

"Nobody will write over the looting of the state-run banks, nobody will be there to write even the whole reserve of Bangladesh Bank get stolen," Salman added.

"The value of journalists has increased in the marriage market with the statement of the Finance Minister," Masud Karim, a senior diplomatic reporter, wrote on his Facebook wall.

Jesmin Papri, another journalist, termed the comment of the Finance Minister as a joke. "What a joke #Finance_Minister!" she wrote.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Tuesday categorically said there is no need to have any wage board for journalists, triggering a war of words with reporters after his meeting with the representatives of Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) at his secretariat office.

"We've a feeling that the wage board for journalists is unnecessary, totally unnecessary! Because your salary scales are better than government salary scales," he told reporters who instantly disagreed with the minister saying, "No, no."

Muhith kept saying, "Let me finish....so, we intervene wherever salary scales are bad. We shouldn't intervene where salary scales are good. What the information I've got today is that your salary scales are better than government scales."

The journalists again disagreed with him and tried to give him proper information.