bangladesh
Budget silent on corruption, money laundering: TIB
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has expressed deep concern that the finance minister's proposed budget speech did not acknowledge the deadly diseases like rampant corruption and money laundering as the main causes for the ongoing economic crisis, increasing income inequality and declining foreign exchange reserves.
In a statement issued today, TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the finance minister in his budget speech announced to tighten imports, continue monitoring of letters of credit and return from multiple currency exchange rates to deal with the dollar crisis and restructure foreign exchange reserves.
But the finance minister avoided the deadly diseases inherent in the country's overall economy, corruption and continued money laundering along with the foreign exchange crisis, he said.
Read more: CPD dismisses budget's projections on growth, inflation, revenue collection
However, it is not unknown to the government that if it was possible to control corruption in Bangladesh at a moderate level, the growth of national income would be at least 2 to 3 percent higher which would have been meaningful for the people, it reads.
TiB says that the extent of social security programs or the number of beneficiaries has not increased compared to the pressure of incomeless and low-income people. It has also been proposed to increase the amount of allowances nominally in some cases, but in practice it will not be meaningful in any way.
Foreign Minister condoles Afsarul Ameen's death
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has expressed deep shock and sorrow at the death of former AL minister and lawmaker from Chattogram-10 constituency Afsarul Ameen.
In a condolence message on Friday, the Foreign Minister prayed for the eternal salvation of the departed soul and expressed sympathy to the bereaved family members.
Afsarul Ameen breathed his last while undergoing treatment at a hospital in the capital around 4 pm. He was 73.
Ameen was elected MP three times with AL's tickets in 2008, 2014 and 2018 from his home constituency.
NBR Chairman defends min Tk 2,000 tax for TIN holders
National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem on Friday raised the rationale behind the proposal to make the minimum Tk 2,000 tax for every TIN holder who is below the taxable income.
“TIN is not mandatory for the poor. It is a matter of pride for the people who are obliged to take TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number) to be partners of the development (of the country), paying Tk 2,000 to the national exchequer. It should not be thought of as a burden,” he said.
The NBR Chairman made these remarks replying to a question in a post-budget press conference arranged by the Finance Ministry in the city’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.
He said the TIN is mandatory for the holders of export and import licenses, other trade licenses and pistol licenses, commission agencies, the house and car owners in city corporation areas and others.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday unveiled the Tk 761,785-crore proposed national budget for the financial year of 2023-2024 in Parliament.
The Minister in his budget speech said, “I propose to make the minimum tax two thousand taka among competent people who are below taxable income but has obligation to submit income tax return to take service from the government with a view to circulating this participation in government welfare work.”
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Tazul Islam, Education Minister Dipu Moni, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, State Minister for Planning Dr Shamsul Alam and Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder answered a volley of questions related to the proposed budget in the press conference.
Besides, Planning Minister MA Mannan, Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun, PM's Economic Affairs Adviser Dr Mashiur Rahman, Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain and Finance Secretary Fatima Yasmin, among others, were present.
Kader Siddique calls US visa policy a disgrace for Bangladesh
Krishak Sramik Janata League President, Bangbir Kader Siddique called the recent US visa policy a matter of great shame for Bangladesh, ‘regardless of how the two parties perceive it’.
“It is a disgrace to the entire country. Normally, the country issuing the visa grants it according to its own discretion; this is the norm. However, this provision imposes conditions on Bangladesh, implying that certain actions will lead to certain consequences. It is a disgrace for us,” he said, while addressing a triennial conference of the Gazipur District Farmers Workers Janata League on Friday morning.
He went on to emphasize that the implications of the US visa policy were not being given enough consideration.
He criticized the Awami League, stating that their actions were not just detrimental to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), but to the nation as a whole, its people, and its dignity.
Furthermore, he expressed regret over his past decision to form an alliance under the leadership of Dr. Kamal Hossain and join the alliance.
“I have learned from that mistake. I have come to understand BNP more in this time than I could have in a hundred years. BNP is not just a political party; it is the party of Khaleda Zia and Tariq Rahman,” he added.
Budget not based on IMF conditions: Finance Minister
Bangladesh's Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said that the national budget for the fiscal year (FY) 2023-24 was not based on the conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"Like in different countries, the IMF has come to Bangladesh and made some recommendations to help the economy. We took their prescriptions as per our needs, but did not follow them all in preparing the budget," he said while addressing a post-budget press conference at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the city on Friday (June 2, 2023).
He said the IMF is not helping the countries only by providing money, they also monitor the economy. This is good for the economy.
Responding to a repeated number of questions on inflation and commodity price hike, the finance minister said the government is concerned about the rising trend in inflation.
Read more: Unrealistic budget won’t help overcome economic crisis: Fakhrul
"We're apprehensive about inflation, but it is not beyond our control. We cannot stop feeding the people," he said.
He said the government is approaching in a flexible way to contain inflation. Through social safety-net programmes, the government has been providing food to poor people.
"We're trying to identify the reasons for inflation and address those. If we need to give any concession, we will do that," he said.
Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque, LGRD Minister Tajul Islam, Education Minister Dipu Moni, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, Finance Secretary Fatima Yasmin, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder, and National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Abu Hena Rahmatul Munim were among others also addressed on the occasion.
Read more: CPD dismisses budget's projections on growth, inflation, revenue collection
The Finance Minister claimed that the new budget was mainly focused on benefiting the poor people.
"We have expanded our tax net so that more taxes could be collected. Everybody has to pay tax," he said, adding that like other budgets in the past this was also prepared targeting both the next election and the people.
"We cannot separate the people or the election from our goal of the budget," he said.
Responding to another question, he said that all the projections made in the previous budgets were implemented.
Kamal said Bangladesh has been well placed in remittance earnings among the countries in the region.
Read more: Budget 2023-24: Govt allocates Tk88,162 crore in education sector, up 8.2%
After a downward trend, remittance earning is again increasing and we can meet five months of our import bill through our reserve.
He said after some measures taken by the government, the inflow of remittance will gradually go up.
At the press conference, with the request of the Finance Minister, Bangladesh Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder responded to a good number of questions, specially, on inflation, remittance and banking sector.
He said that Bangladesh Bank will announce its monetary policy on June 19 where it will lay out the plan on containing inflation, and increasing remittance and reserve.
He claimed that though the government's loan from the banking system is increasing, it will not push up inflation as the central bank is withdrawing more money from the market through selling dollars.
Read more: Budget sets 7.5 percent annual economic growth, inflation at 6 percent
Bangladesh reports 4 more dengue cases
Four more people were hospitalised with dengue in 24 hours till Friday morning.
Of the new patients, two were admitted to hospitals in Dhaka and the rest outside it, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Three-hundred-thirty-two dengue patients, including 289 in the capital, are now receiving treatment at hospitals across the country.
So far, the DGHS has recorded 2,138 dengue cases, 1,793 recoveries, and 13 deaths this year.
The country logged 281 dengue deaths in 2022 – the highest on record after 179 deaths recorded in 2019. Also, it recorded 62,423 dengue cases and 61,971 recoveries last year.
Schoolboy commits suicide after family dispute
A schoolboy allegedly committed suicide at his house in Magura's Mohammadpur upazila on Thursday night as his parents refused to buy him a motorcycle.
The deceased was identified as Rezwan, son of Bazlur Rahman of the area. He was a student of Class VIII at the Govt. RSKH Institution in Mohammadpur.
Asit Kumar Roy, officer-in-charge of Mohammadpur police station, said that Rezwan had been demanding a motorcycle for some days. On Thursday night, he took sleeping pills as his parents didn’t buy him the motorcycle that he demanded.
He was rushed to Faridpur Medical College Hospital as he fell ill after taking excessive pills.
Later, he died while undergoing treatment at the hospital at 12 am.
"A UD (unnatural death) case has been registered with Mohammadpur police in this regard," added the OC.
Bangladesh, India celebrate ‘Rabindra Jayanti’ in London
In celebration of Bangladesh-Baharat Maitri (Bangladesh-India Friendship) and the common cultural heritage, the high commissions of Bangladesh and India in the UK jointly hosted an exclusive Tagore Musical Evening in London on Wednesday.
High Commissioner of Bangladesh Saida Muna Tasneem and High Commissioner of India to the UK Vikram Doraiswami spoke on the occasion titled “Celebrating Tagore and Nature”.
High Commissioner Saida Muna Tasneem paid deep homage to Bangladesh’s Founding Father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and thanked Bangabandhu for choosing one of the most popular patriotic songs of Tagore ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ as Bangladesh’s national anthem.
The High Commissioner said, “Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European and a Bengali poet to receive a Nobel prize, has created the strongest cultural bond between the people of Bangladesh and India as his literary works in Bengali resonate with the people and the land of these two countries, particularly with Bengali speaking people across the borders.
CPD dismisses budget's projections on growth, inflation, revenue collection
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a think tank, in its traditional post-budget review on Friday (June 2, 2023) said the proposed national budget of Bangladesh for FY 2023-24 projected ambitious targets for both GDP growth and inflation, without putting forth any realistic measures to achieve them in light of global and domestic crises.
The CPD said budget focused on increasing tax-GDP ratio, but the revenue growth target is not realistic, so the volume of deficit financing will ultimately widen.
CPD Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun led the post-budget review, held at a hotel in Gulshan, and televised live on some tv channels.
She said the budget has been placed at a time when the macroeconomic stability of Bangladesh has weakened significantly.
REad: Proposed budget targets are challenging: FICCI
“The macroeconomic stress is visible on lowering growth of revenue mobilisation and shrinking of fiscal space of current fiscal year (FY 2022-23), soaring borrowing from banks, higher price of daily essentials and decreasing foreign exchange reserve,” she added.
The private credit growth projected to 15 percent in FY 2023-24 that was 14.1 percent in 2022-23. As of April 2023, private sector credit growth was 11.3 percent, she said.
Replying to a query, CPD’s distinguished fellow professor Dr Mustafizur Rahman said the revenue growth projection in 2023-24, compared with actual revenue achievement of FY2022-23, wpi;d be a massive 39 percent, which is "absolutely ambitious" - perhaps even overambitious.
The budget’s growth projection occurred based on a wrong concept, so multi sectoral problems would arrive in the implementing stage of the proposed budget.
Read more: Budget 2023-24: Govt allocates Tk88,162 crore in education sector, up 8.2%
Mustafiz expected a monetary policy reflecting fiscal policy in light of the budget and controlling measures of higher inflation.
Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of CPD said the budget technically avoided the capital market development policy, which is very essential for such a developing economy.
“Without establishing a realistic and sustainable capital market, investment financing cannot grow, the government incentive based capital market cannot play a role in new investment in the capital market,” he added.
Towfiqul Islam Khan, Senior Research Fellow in CPD said curiously, no mention was found regarding the accumulation of external payments arrears or new forex reserve.
REad: Finance minister unveils the country’s largest ever budget in Parliament
Details about critical reforms, including shifting towards market-based dollar exchange rate and interest rate and adoption of periodic formula-based petroleum product prices, have not been explained in the budget speech, he said.
The CPD projection said Bangladesh's proposed national budget of FY 2023-24 targets 15.5 percent growth will be around 39.7 percent growth target compared to the current budget achievement and Tk1.42 lakh crore is needed to be mobilized.
Former minister Afsarul Ameen passes away
Afsarul Ameen, a former AL minister and lawmaker from Chattogram-10 constituency passed away on Friday.
He was 73.
Afsarul Ameen, also vice president of Chittagong Metropolitan Awami League, breathed his last while undergoing treatment at a hospital in the capital around 4 pm, said his younger brother Arif Ameen.
He said that his elder brother was diagnosed with lung cancer in January 2020. He received treatment in Singapore. Later, he was brought to the country and given treatment at a private hospital in Dhaka.
He was elected MP three times with AL's tickets in 2008, 2014 and 2018 from his home constituency.
He was first made shipping minister and later given charge of the primary and mass education ministries.