Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s Acting Secretary General Maulana ATM Masum has issued the following statement on 1st July 2022 expressing reaction as the highly ambitious and loan-based national budget worth Tk 6.78 lakh crore for the financial year 2022–23 was passed in Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday.

Finance Minister AHM Mostofa Kamal placed the budget of 6 lakh 78 thousand and 64 crore taka in the parliament on last 9th June. Following the announcement of the budget, the economists, research institutes, business forums, and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami made a review of the budget and gave some recommendations. But the government did not take any of those recommendations into consideration.

We want to assert that it is a loan-based budget. The highly ambitious target can never be fulfilled. The budget has kept some allocations for agriculture, health safety, poverty alleviation, creating employment opportunities, and social safety net but which are not safe and secured. The industrial investment did not get due focus in this budget as well. This budget has also ignored the interest of lower and middle-class people.

The budget finally allowed the whitening of black money with an a7% tax rate which will inspire corruption more. Nobody can term it legal. Such provision will promote illegal income and corruption. The budget failed to take measures in controlling the use and supply of drugs and narcotics. The nation is bitterly experiencing the severe aggression of narcotics. People and the youth are being disturbed and destroyed by the severe aggression of narcotics.
Sylhet-Sunamganj and northern parts of the country have been experiencing the severity of the disastrous flood. But the budget failed to address the issue. Huge number of roads, culverts, shops, houses, and academic institutions became devastated by this flood. It should be repaired and reconstructed. But the budget said no words about undertaking steps in this regard.

This budget emphasized political interest and paved the way for mega corruption. The tax-free limit has been kept 3 lakh taka which is not acceptable at all.

Overall, in brief, this is a highly ambitious and loan-based budget that very vividly ignored the interest of the middle and low-income people. The finance minister made a good speech about taking steps for recovering the broken economy and making it dynamic. More effective steps should be considered for implementation. But regrettably, the budget did not reflect it properly. This budget will not bring any positive impact on the nation and its fellow countrymen.