9 June 2022, Thu, 6:45

Acting Secretary General terms the proposed budget as highly ambitious; improper for public welfare

-Maulana ATM Masum

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s Acting Secretary General Maulana ATM Masum has issued the following statement on 9th June 2022 expressing his immediate reaction to the highly ambitious and loan-based Tk 6,78,064 crore budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year which has been placed by the finance minister in the parliament today.

“Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal placed a Taka 6,78,064 crore proposed national budget for 2022-23 fiscal year in Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday with the major challenge of reining inflation amid the unfavorable global economic situation.The title of the budget for the next fiscal year is ‘Return to the Path of Development; Leaving the COVID-19 Behind’. It was said that top priority in this budget would be given to tackling inflation, creating employment, agriculture, health security, human resource development, and education. But actually, it was not reflected in the budget.

The next budget for FY23 aims to attain a GDP growth rate of 7.5 percent based on the positive trend of economic recovery from the pandemic while it also eyes to contain inflation at 5.6 percent. Such an assumption is far away from reality and completely fictitious. There is a huge gap between income and expense. It should be added that the government failed to meet most of the targets in the current fiscal year.

The proposed budget sets the ADP of 2 lakh 4 thousand and 66 crore taka. the government has set an overall revenue collection target of Taka 4,36,271 crore which would be 9.8 percent of GDP.The original revenue collection target by the revenue board in the outgoing fiscal year was Taka 3,30,000 crore while the authority became able to collect only 2 lakh 4 thousand crore taka in the first 9 months of the fiscal year which is TK one lakh 26 thousand crores less than the actual target. To meet the set target, the revenue board has to collect almost TK one lakh 26 thousand crores in just 3 months, which is just impossible.

The proposed budget has set a budget deficit target of 5.5 percent of GDP or Taka 2, 45,064crore which is estimated at Taka 30,383 crores higher than the original budget deficit of Taka 2, 14,681crore in the outgoing fiscal year. The budget deficit in the outgoing fiscal year was earlier set at 6.2 percent of GDP.To meet the deficit financing in the new budget, the government has raised its target of borrowing from the domestic sources with Taka 1,46,335 crore of which Taka 1,06,334 crore will come from the banking sector, Taka 35,000 crore from the savings certificates, and the rest of Taka 5,001 crore from other sources.Besides, the government is also eying to get Taka 95,458 crore from foreign sources as loans and grants.

This budget will increase the government’s dependency on banks. Already the baking sector is suffering terribly due to inflation and recession. Moreover, the proposed budget proposes to manage Taka 1,46,335 crore from the banking sector, which will resultantly push the sector towards severe anarchy. Due to this irrational budget entire economic discipline may collapse.

The next budget for FY23 aims to attain a GDP growth rate of 7.5 percent based on the positive trend of economic recovery from the pandemic while it also eyes to contain inflation at 5.6 percent. The GDP of the previous fiscal year was 7.2 percent even though that could not be achieved. The health structure of the country is almost broken. There is no sufficient equipment and technology in the hospital. People die often as they are not getting proper treatment. Under the circumstances, the proposed budget allocates 36,863 thousand crore taka for the health sector which is not sufficient. We are of the view that at present, the allocation for the health sector should be at least 10 percent of the budget.

Though in this budget address, the finance minister talked about alleviating poverty, creating job opportunities, and increasing the social safety net. However, he allocates money for these sectors but failed to give any outline for implementing his strategies. For the marginal people, there is nothing but some as usual statement.

33,698 thousand crore taka has been allocated for the agriculture sector. Agriculture is the key source of Bangladesh’s economy. But the reality is, that the farmers never get their due prices. The proposed budget says nothing about curbing the price of the essentials. The industrial sector is another important field for the economy. More than 30 million people are involved in the SME sector in particular. But the proposed budget failed to appreciate this sector.

The outgoing budget had allocated a special fund of TK 10 thousand crore for tackling the impact of covid pandemic. Even in the proposed budget, another 5 thousand crore taka has been allocated to meet the same purpose. But it did not clarify the distribution policy. Whatever is happening with the corona fund is really painful. Even a significant number of miscreants went to jail for misappropriating the money of this fund. The scandalous incidents with covid vaccine import and distribution are also shameful for us as a nation. We think more transparency and accountability to be ensured in these activities.

The education sector became badly affected by the pandemic but the budget has no specific guidelines for the critically affected education sector. Huge number of Bangladeshi expatriates are living in various countries of the world. Many of them are facing uncertainty due to the Russia-Ukraine war. Many of them became compelled to return home and now they are leading a terrible life. The budget has no directives to rehabilitate these remittance warriors.

The allocation for disaster management is not enough. There is no word for the people of the Southern region, who had been badly victimized by the natural catastrophe repeatedly. But the budget also said nothing about their rehabilitation process as well.

The tax-free income ceiling for the individual taxpayers in the next fiscal year is to remain at Taka 3 lakh. In all perspectives, the government has increased the ratio of income and expense but they did not raise the tax-free income ceiling which is not a justified decision.

The budget of 2022-23 fiscal year has proposed to legalize the money which has been laundered in foreign countries. Such step would encourage corruption and simultaneously would institutionalize the corruption practices. Actually, the government has come up with the decision to legitimize the embezzled money of the ruling party leaders. We firmly believe that the countrymen is the real owner of the laundered money. So, the state has the responsibility to deposit it in the state fund. But there is no scope to legitimize this illegal money. Finance Minister’s proposal in this regard is unethical, unlawful, and regrettable. The vested quarters who had embezzled or laundered money to the foreign countries must be brought to the book by the Anti Corruption Commission immediately.

The labor’s contribution to the economic prosperity of Bangladesh is undeniable. But to preserve and protect their health security, there is no word in the proposed budget. We think that the budget should have special arrangements to secure labor’s health, accommodation, and health insurance. Overall, effective good governance, transparency, and accountability are a must to tackle the global recession and also to rescue Bangladesh from the economic crisis.

We will present our detailed feedback and evaluation of the proposed budget after scrutinizing all the aspects of it. But so far, our immediate reaction is, that this loan-based budget will not bring welfare and good message to the people.