Secretary General of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and former lawmaker Professor Mia Golam Porwar has issued the following statement on 11 June 2020 expressing party’s instant reaction about the proposed Tk 568,000 crore national budget of 2020-21 fiscal year which has been placed by the finance minister in the parliament this afternoon.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today placed Tk 568,000 crore national budget for 2020-21 fiscal with an ambitious target of 8.2 percent GDP growth amid the economic fallout due to the coronavirus pandemic. Dubbing the budget as "economic transition and pathway to progress", the minister has said, it would help to recover the national economy and protect public lives.

The budget set an ambitious target of 8.2 percent GDP growth and overall budget deficit will be Tk 190,000 crore, which is 6 percent of GDP. Inflation rate has been set up to 5.4 percent. The difference between the proposed budget and the current GDP growth is huge and the new target is absolutely unrealistic and fictitious. There is huge gap between the income and the expenditure as well.

The total allocation for operating and other expenditures has been projected at Tk 3,62,855 crore and the allocation for the annual development program (ADP) has been estimated at Tk 2,05,145 crore. The revenue collection target for the coming fiscal year has been set Tk 378,000 crore. Of the amount, the NBR has been tasked to realize a revenue collection target of Tk 330,000 crore, the non-NBR revenue collection target is Tk 15,000 crore while the non-tax revenue collection target is Tk 33,000 crore. Besides, Taka 4,013 crore will come from foreign grants. 84, 980 crore takas will be taken from banks as loan. The amount is almost double in comparison to last year. One third of the budget is loan based and the government will struggle to pay the interests of these mountainous loans.

This budget will increase government’s bank dependency than ever. In the 11 months of the current fiscal year, government already took loans worth of one lac crore taka from different banks. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, government has declared 19 stimulus packages, worth of one lac 3 thousand and 117 crore taka. Banks are supposed to supply all these moneys. Already, our banks are suffering from liquidity crisis. While, this budget proposed to take 84, 980 crore takas as loans from banking sector. This budget would push the banks into a severe crisis. The proposed budget will bring the ultimate collapse of the financial sector.

The proposed budget set an ambitious target of 8.2 percent GDP growth which is similar to the target of the previous year. But the government later revised the GDP target into 5.2 percent. World Bank is saying that the GDP of the current fiscal year will be 1.6 percent finally and it would be one percent lesser in the next fiscal year. But paying no heed to those assumptions, this time 8.2 percent GDP rate has been set again. But practically it is just impossible to achieve.

The whole nation is going through covid-19 pandemic. Significant number of people are being infected and died of coronavirus every day. Many people are being died without getting any treatment. Amidst this critical healthcare facilities, the proposed budget allocated Tk. 41,027 crore for the upcoming fiscal year, which is 1.3% of GDP and takes the figure to 7.2% of the total budget allocations. When the entire nation is suffering from poor medical care facilities, under such circumstances, the allocation for the health sector is not enough. It should cover at least 10 percent of the total budget.

The proposed budget verbally gave importance on alleviating poverty, creating job opportunities and strengthening social safety net. But it did not place any specific proposals to outline the implementation process. The proposed budget gave some as usual statements of providing food to the marginal community but failed to specify any particular measures.

Agriculture is the controlling force of Bangladesh’s economy. But unfortunately, our farmers do not get due prices of their products. The proposed budget did not clarify anything to reduce production cost. The budget maintained the last year’s price for chemical fertilizers. Agriculture sector did not get due importance in the proposed budget.

Industrial sector is playing a pivotal role in Bangladesh economy. It saved foreign currencies at huge level. Some two and half crore people are involved with SME sector. But this sector did not due attention in the proposed budget.  

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, huge number of expatriates had been forced to come back in Bangladesh. The number will be increased in future. These expatriates have a great contribution in the national economy. But the proposed budget said nothing about the rehabilitation of these expatriates.

Proposed budget allocated 9 thousand 8 hundred and 36 crore takas for disaster management. Finance Minister said few words about the super cyclone Amphan and finally failed to allocate money to repair the roads, culverts, embankments of 26 South-western districts, which have been severely damaged by the Amphan.

The tax-free income limit for individual taxpayer has been increased in the proposed budget for FY 2020-21. In the new budget, the tax-free income limit has been fixed at Tk 300,000. But the tax-free income limit should be fixed at taka 400,000 in general. For the women, it should be fixed at 450,000 BDT.

Government failed to meet last year’s target for revenue collection. In the proposed budget, it has targeted to gain 50 percent growth. It is usually tough to attain growth more than 20 percent in the normal condition, while it is absolutely impossible to achieve 50 percent growth amid a pandemic situation.  

The coronavirus situation has made hundreds of people unemployed and the number of the unemployed people are increasing randomly. 95 percent people’s income has been reduced due to coronavirus situation. 62 percent people have lost their jobs. But ignoring all these realities, finance minister made confusing statements by saying that only 14 lac people are unemployed in the country. The proposed budget failed to outline any directives in this regard.

The proposed budget has kept the provision of legalizing black money which will indulge corruption and irregularities. Practically, the budget kept such provision to legalize the illegal money of the ruling party leaders and activists. We think, anti-corruption commission should take stern measures against those people who earned money illegally.

Bangladesh is a Muslim country but we are observing that the Zakat money is under taxation process. The money of Zakat must be tax-free. Laborers are making huge contribution for the economic development. But the proposed budget said nothing about their health safety. Laborer’s health and accommodation should come under the insurance policy.

The government failed to implement previous fiscal year’s budget and there are similar symptoms in the current year as well. In words, there is no alternative but ensuring effective good governance, transparency and accountability to rehabilitate the nation economy which is already suffering due to pandemic situation. The proposed budget is not people-friendly. It has simply ignored the interest of the poor people and the people with limited income.