30 June 2021, Wed, 12:30

Ambitious budget passed in the parliament for 2021-22 fiscal year

Secretary General criticizes government as expert’s budget recommendations ignored

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s Secretary General and former lawmaker Professor Mia Golam Porwar has issued the following statement on 30 June 2021 reacting to the recent incident as the parliament passed the highly ambitious budget of 6 lakhs 3 thousand 681 crore taka for 2021-22 fiscal year.

“After placing the budget of 6 lakhs 3 thousand 681 crore taka for 2021-22 fiscal year by Finance Minister AHM Mostafa Kamal, we made some suggestions and recommendations. The economists and experts also placed some recommendations about the proposed budget. But paying no heed to such suggestion, finance minister’s proposed budget has been passed today by the parliament. I want to reaffirm that this is loan-based budget with huge deficiency. The target, fixed in this budget is near to impossible. The budget made an insufficient allocation for healthcare, agriculture, poverty alleviation, employment, investment and social safety net.

Investment in the industrial sector did not get due importance in this budget. Though thousands of crores of Taka are remaining in banks as idle money, but the budget failed to make any specific directives to utilize this money. The banks are also not getting confidence to invest more as there is no financial security. There is no instruction in the budget about creating investment-friendly atmosphere in the country.

The budget again gave the scope for whitening black money which will facilitate corruptions and irregularities more. They are claiming to impose high taxes for such whitening process, but actually it is nothing but an attempt to legalize an illegal task. The budget failed to curb the usage, supply and marketing of narcotics. Although the youth generations are going to be ruined because of the grasp of narcotics and drugs.

Covid-19 pandemic forced many expatriates to come back. They are leading deplorable lives inside the country now. The budget said nothing about their rehabilitations. The budget for 2021-22 fiscal year kept a poor allocation for disaster management procedures. The inhabitants of the Southern and Southern-Western region have suffered massively for two consecutive disasters. But the budget kept no allocation for them. It has denied the interest of the people who had lost everything because of natural calamities.

This budget has paved the way for serving political interest of the ruling party. The activists of the ruling party, who are involved with illegal incomes, will get opportunity to continue those activities.

Overall, this is a highly ambitious and unrealistic budget. It clearly denied the interest of the middle-class people. The finance minister in his budget speech, talked used many attractive words about the revival of the economy from the adverse impact of the pandemic, but practically, his budget failed to materialize those visions. In words, this budget will not bring benefit for the general masses.