Centre for Policy Dialogue
CPD dialogue calls for ensuring workplace safety at factories
A total of 222 garment factories across the country, of which 66 per cent are export oriented—have confronted fire incidents during 2020.
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a social think-tank, found this in its latest study that also revealed that the number of injured workers in factory related accidents increased by almost 24 per cent in 2020 compared to that of in 2019.
CPD Research Director Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem disclosed the findings on Sunday while presenting the study report at a virtual dialogue on “Challenges of Industrial Safety in the Post-Accord-Alliance Era: Is the Institutionalisation Process Slowing Down?”
Also read: ILO saddened by Rupganj factory fire, urges proper safety measures in factories
The virtual seminar, jointly organised the CPD and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Bangladesh, was also addressed by CPD Chairman Dr Rehman Siobhan, organisation’s distinguished fellow Prof Mustafizur Rahman, Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun, President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Faruque Hassan, President of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporter Association (BKMEA) Vice President Mohammad Hatem, Inspector General of Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment (DIFE) Md Nasir Uddin, Chief Technical Advisor of International Labour Organisation (ILO) George Faller, garment labour leaders Babul Aktar, China Rahman and Executive Director of Karmajibi Nabi Sanjida Sultana, and Brac official Jenefa Jabber.
Treasurer of CPD Board of Trustee and Apex Group CE0 Syed Monzur Elahi moderated the function.
Dr Moazzem said the issue of workplace safety in the RMG sector has come to public attention in recent times with the rise in industrial accidents in garment and allied factories.
Also read:Locked inside a factory without fire exit, 52 lives go up in flames
He said the rising number of accidents raises question about the effectiveness of the institutional process followed for maintaining industrial safety in the post-Accord-Alliance period.
He also claimed that the number of incidences increased by 100 per cent in FY2020 compared to that in FY2019 followed by a decline of 20 per cent in FY2021 (up to April, 2021).
“Accidents took place for different reasons such as fire, short circuit, structural collapse, boiler explosion and so on”, he said adding the incidences of fire and electrical (short-circuit) were the main reasons (35% of total incidences).
Citing the example of latest fires incident at Sezan Juice Industries at Rupganj, this has been an eye opener for the all concerned stakeholders that it puts an extra importance to look at the working environment at other industrial sectors beside the garment industries.
Dr Rehman Sobhan said now time has come to pay attention to improvement of the working environment in other industries as well for the sake ensuring workers’ safety.
Speakers from garment workers’ leaders blamed the lack of the government’s proper monitoring for growing incidents of fire and other accidents for which the workers are being the main victims.
“We’ve been hearing the same statement from the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment (DIFE) in last eight years since the Rana Plaza Disaster in 2013 that it has no adequate manpower to monitor industries“, said China Rahman.
Citing the fire incident at Sezan Juice Factory in Rupganj that killed 52 workers, she said during the incident, gates were locked up although there was strict directive that no gate of factory can be locked during working hour.
Babul Aktar said the primary responsibility of any industry should go to the factory owners first and then to the government.
He said always the DIFE shows the lame excuse of manpower shortage for its failure to do its duty.
Inspector General of DIFE said the department has a sanctioned post of 993 while inspectors’ post is 575 and now only 314 inspectors are working against those post to oversee over registered 90,000 factories and 440,000 non-registered factories.
Dhaka-Beijing ties can be prime mover for Bangladesh’s transformation: Debapriya
Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya has said there is a full potential for Bangladesh-China relationship to be a prime mover for the economic and social transformation of Bangladesh in the next decade.
He, however, said it will largely depend on how they prepare for it, address the prerequisites and be careful about the pitfalls which lie in their way.
The economist said Bangladesh must insist that duty-free quota-free (DFQF) market access extended by China to Bangladesh has to be extended beyond the graduation (of Bangladesh from the LDC group).
Also read: Rohingya Repatriation: Beijing assures to act as bridge to facilitate early results
“Because, beyond graduation, we’ll still need market access support from our developing partners, including the South-South partners,” he said while addressing a virtual roundtable.
Dr Debapriya hoped that China will declare that the duty-free quota-free market access will be available for Bangladesh, at least for the first nine years after the graduation.
“The European Union and others are being persuaded to do so. The issue is on the table at the WTO. Thankfully, China, India and other southern countries are supporting us over there - the LDC group’s proposal,” he added.
Due to the pandemic, the bilateral trade volume was dented with a 13.6% drop to 15.9 billion dollars last year.
However, the “resilience and dynamism” of the two economies make it reasonable to expect a huge rebound this year.
According to statistics from China Customs, the trade volume in the first four months of 2021 is 7.19 billion dollars with a 42.9% year-on increase.
Also read: Never worry about any 'debt trap': Beijing to Dhaka
China’s export to and import from Bangladesh stand at 6.84 billion and 350 million dollars, growing by 43.8% and 28.1% respectively.
Last year, China granted 97% duty-free treatment to Bangladeshi products, which is seen as an important step towards a higher level of bilateral trade liberalization.
Earlier, Dr Debapriya said, Bangladesh used to export over 5,000 goods and now another 3000 goods have been added to it. “So, we can export 8,256 items to the Chinese market, which is a great achievement.”
He said the Bangladesh-China relationship needs to be understood in the global context and also in the regional context not only in the bilateral context.
Debapriya said it is important that they get China more involved in creating the regional and global value chain in Bangladesh. “Bangladesh and China should be together in the global and regional value chain.”
Also read: Experts for building brighter future keeping growing Dhaka-Beijing ties unaffected amidst geopolitics
Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming delivered the keynote speech at the virtual roundtable titled “Bangladesh China Relations: Prognosis of the Future.” It was hosted by the Cosmos Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Cosmos Group, as part of its ongoing Ambassador’s Lecture Series.
The opening remarks were delivered by the Cosmos Foundation Chairman, Enayetullah Khan. The session was chaired by Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, renowned scholar-diplomat and former Advisor on Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh Caretaker Government.
Ambassador (retd) Tariq A. Karim, CPD Distinguished Fellow Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, former Foreign Secretary Shamsher Chowdhury BB, Assistant Researcher of the Institute for International Studies at Yunnan University Dr Zou Yingmeng, Assistant Research Fellow at China Institute of International Studies Dr Ning Shengnan, former Ambassador Serajul Islam and Dhaka University Professor Dr Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir comprised the panel of discussants.
Utilise SDGs as a framework to address youth agenda: Dialogue
Youths should be involved beyond passive consultation processes and be encouraged to actively provide inputs to local and national SDG accountability mechanisms, speakers have said at a virtual dialogue.
Although the youth at the national and local level was considered an important part of implementation and accountability in Sustainable Development Agenda-2030, it has not been implemented, they said.
The virtual global sharing session titled Youth, SDG Accountability & the Voluntary Local Review: Situating Bangladesh’s Experience within the Global Context" was jointly organised by the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh and ActionAid Bangladesh on Thursday night.
Also read: SDGs: 'Youth voice missing in policy process'
The SDGs assume that the youth will play a crucial role in the Voluntary National Review (VNR) and other related accountability processes.
Rather than solely focusing on skills for employability, youth-based skills training programmes deployed by both government and NSAs (Non-State Actors) should also involve training to collect data, through modern ICT solutions, relevant to the protection of youth’s well- being and rights, said the speakers.
However, they said, consolidation of global experiences in terms of localising youth participation in SDG implementation and accountability has been sparse.
In fact, a third of the 17 SDGs exclusively refer to the youths in view of their development, participation and well-being. Even indicators that do not directly refer to the youths have serious implications for them, said the discussants.
Riina Jussila, Sustainable Development Expert, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), New York mentioned that, even within the context where both national and local levels of government do not believe in the SDGs and have cancelled the national census even before the Covid pandemic, as a response there is still a “spotlight report” to shadow the country’s SDG implementation, citizen generated data to replace the census and even their own set of indicators called the “inequality map”.
"Leveraging the usage of ICT is crucial to empowering the youths in SDG accountability. It’s needed for disruption of education and lack of opportunities. The data collection skills are needed and ICT will work to leverage and enhance it. Moreover, creation of spaces to not just share ideas but to document processes of implementing SDGs," said Estefania Charvet, Head of Programmes, Southern Voice Network.
Farah Kabir, Country Director, ActionAid Bangladesh, pointed that whole society inclusion should be a major goal which can be done via data and information sharing, capacity building, political commitment, environment and such other.
"We need to bring on board, particularly young women and men to understand the perspectives and thinking of the young generation across the globe," she said.
A keynote presentation was delivered by Najeeba Mohammed Altaf, Programme Associate, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), in which the involvement of youth in the SDG Accountability mechanisms, specifically the VNRs, was analysed from three different experiences.
These are mobilization, localisation and accountability experiences across global, national (Official) and national (Non-State Actors) perspectives.
She also mentioned that, despite the clear importance shown to youth within the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development itself, this importance was not reflected in the extent of youth participation documented in either the 2017 or 2020 VNR published by Bangladesh.
Many of the perfunctory “consultation” meetings mentioned in the 2020 VNR were not conducted due to the pandemic either.
Following the analysis, recommendations were constructed based on the progress made by Bangladesh compared to its international peers.
The paradigm of progression in Nigeria is one of ups and downs.
"The biggest issue is regarding the data gap and access to IT and internet among the youth. We also interacted with youth organisations and it was also inclusive," said Suwaiba Yakubu-Jibrin, Director of Programme, ActionAid Nigeria.
Sesheeni Selvaratnam, International Programme & Policy Lead, ActionAid Denmark, said SDGs need to be accessible to locals in a language they can understand. In one case, one of the youths empowered through ActionAid in Zambia who was also part of Green Movement was actually contacted by their government to write the chapter on youth in their VNR.
Left behind youth in SGD perspective especially women, indigenous group and third gender, who are the less linked people are exposed in employability issues mostly during the pandemic.
According to Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Convenor, Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh and Distinguished Fellow, CPD; data, information and protecting civic space in the post pandemic period needs to be focused when the state may take a much more authoritarian approach in the upcoming days. In the absence of a robust global governance structure, this is not only an issue for the nation but also global in many ways.
Also read: D-8 Youth Summit: Dhaka for achieving SDGs engaging youth
Daya Sagar Shrestha, Chairperson, National Campaign for Sustainable Development Nepal (NACASUD-Nepal); Vitor Mihessen, Casa Fluinense, Brazil; Ms Sesheeni Selvaratnam, International Programme & Policy Lead, ActionAid Denmark also shared their views at the discussion.
Kazi Ashief Mahmood, Project Officer- DRR, BRAC and Reneka Ahmed Antu, Youth Advocate, Plan International Bangladesh were also present at the event.
The virtual global session was moderated by Towfiqul Islam Khan, Senior Research Fellow, CPD.
The dialogue was also participated by a selected group of non-government organisations working on youth issues, UN representatives and country experts from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America as well as international development partners and representatives of the media.
CPD finds much in budget out of touch with reality
The target of 7.2 percent GDP growth in the upcoming fiscal won’t be fulfilled as it is not realistic considering different economic indicators, according to an immediate reaction to the proposed budget for 2021-22 from the Centre for Policy Dialogue, a leading think-tank.
“We think that the 7 percent plus GDP growth will not be materialistic and fulfilled,” said CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun at a virtual press conference in the evening.
Noting that 6.1 percent GDP growth is being recorded in the outgoing fiscal year, she said, “We think there is a thin possibility to attain the higher growth than it (growth in outgoing fiscal), considering what we are seeing in other economic indexes. Rather it might be less ( than 6.1 percent).”
The CPD Executive Director said the targets for overall revenue collection, expenditures, investment and other things are not realistic either.
Also read: New budget unveiled with focus on protecting lives and livelihoods
“No significant change is not in the revenue collection. If we compare it with the revised budget, we see a discrepancy between the budget implementation rate in the 10 months and the proposed revenue target… The target for revenue collection would be raised by 30 percent, which is much higher,” she said.
Fahmida said some structural changes are seen in financing the budget. Resources would be mobilised from foreign sources to finance the budget, which is a welcoming matter and it has been done rightly. Because, the private sector may require loans from the country’s banks, though the private investment is not increasing yet, she added.
She said now Bangladesh is in a comfortable zone to repay loans as the debt-GDP ratio remains at a satisfactory stage, but Bangladesh needs to be careful so that the ratio does not spike.
The CPD executive director said it is not that budget that would have required to face the Covid-19 on the one hand and recover the economy on the other hand.
Also read: New budget: Tracking prices going up and down
The implementation of the Covid-period budget would be a challenge due to weak projections and limitations in implementation, she said.
“In this budget, there should have been clear indications for several years over health, education, social and employment sectors, expenditure structures in other sectors, and revenue collection,” she said.
Fahmida said no tax justice was seen in this budget as the tax-free income limit has been kept unchanged. If the limit would have been raised, low-income people would have disposable income in their hands, she added.
Increase allocation, operate cash transfer to disadvantaged communities: Experts
Experts have urged to increase allocation and operate cash transfer to disadvantaged communities noting that the Covid-19 situation has adversely affected members of these groups.
They also underscored the need for specific policies for vulnerable groups and the right direction to implement them.
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Convenor of Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh and Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), on Sunday made the keynote presentation at a webinar on what should be there for the ‘disadvantaged people’.
The platform has proposed a number of fiscal budgetary framework, strategic priorities and state of Covid stimulus packages, keeping in the purview of the upcoming 2021-22 budget.
“Employment is being restored with low skills and low-income jobs, extensive under-employment, growing indebtedness and deepening inequality are increasing during the second wave. Budgetary targets are not realised on both resource and expenditure sides,” Dr Debapriya added.
Apparent stability of the macroeconomic situation is also needed in terms of low inflation, stable exchange rate, moderate fiscal deficit and current account surplus.
The socio-economic impact and the disproportionate impact on traditionally marginalised communities (‘left behind’) as well as on low income and low middle-income people (‘pushed behind’) will be more protracted than the immediate health emergencies.
He said current circumstances demand special attention to consumption protection of the poor/low-income people and employment promotion at MSME level. “To initiate the midterm approach of FY 2021-22, we need to press all four triggers – consumption, investment, government spending and net exports,” the economist said.
A minimum two-three year time frame to have a robust recovery strategy with core budget, integrating recovery efforts with structural transformation needs, targeted discretionary support to the “left behind” and “push behind” communities/citizens and use SDG as a framework for poverty frame and align with 8FYP (2021-25) is critically important.
Until March of FY 2021, revenue collection was 50 percent of the target with 7.3(+) percent growth and ADP expenditure was 42 percent of total allocation with 4.3(-) percent growth.
Financing budget deficit were seen due to low use of foreign concessional finance, high borrowing from the banking sector and costly borrowing through NSC needs to be retrained. Use of concessional foreign finance to be prioritised to improve ADP implementation as well as to keep budget deficit from increasing.
The disadvantaged population of the country bears the disproportionate adverse impact of such shortfall in public development programme. In 2020, we were concerned about resource availability (lack of fiscal space) to confront the pandemic. In 2021, we can say it is the inability to implement the public expenditure programmes which has become the binding constraint, he said.
“We also need to create an integrated database of potential recipients of government supports including social safety nets and to improve the quality of the public expenditures, involvement of stakeholders at different levels are required,” he added.
According to the keynote, in FY 2020, before July 2020, total Tk 77,278 crore (2.76% of GDP) stimulus was announced. In FY 2021, till May 2021, the amount was roughly Tk 47,715.50 crore (1.71% of GDP).
To have greater fiscal multiplier effect, Bangladesh needs to push resources to those having a high marginal propensity to consume (e.g., poorer households) and a high marginal propensity to invest (e.g., small entrepreneurs).
Substantive cash transfer to disadvantaged communities/citizens, liquidity flow to MSME, domestic market-oriented manufacturing diversification, post-harvest mechanisation of agriculture, IT-platform based high value service provision etc are some strategic priorities for the FY2021-22 budget.
In Covid related government support intervention, there were 14 fiscal support (including two food support) and this was less than 20.5% of total allocation. Eleven hybrid support (subsidy to interest rate) amounting a little above 79.5% of total allocation where 18 are new interventions and 7 were extension of the existing programme.
Hybrid support in FY 2020-21 includes additional Tk 10,000 crore in working capital loans to affected large industries and service sector. Some packages were announced in one fiscal year, but intended to disburse from following fiscal year fully or partly. The estimated net fiscal support (net fiscal support excludes fiscal support for agriculture sector and construction of home) is as low as 1.63 percent and 15.54 percent of total allocations in FY20 and FY21 respectively.
In terms of share of GDP, they are 0.04 percent and 0.19 percent respectively. Fiscal support was not only low in allocation but also slower in delivery. This overwhelming constraint cannot be addressed exclusively through strengthened administrative monitoring. This will need wide-ranging structural and institutional reforms.
Anisatul Fatema Yousuf, Coordinator of Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh; Advocate Sultana Kamal, Former Executive Director of Ain o Salish Kendra; Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow of CPD; ShaheenAnam, Executive Director of Manusher Jonno Foundation; Rasheda K Choudhury, Executive Director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE); Dr Mushtaque Raza Chowdhury, Vice Chairperson of BRAC; Asif Ibrahim, Chairman of Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) & Syed Nasim Manzur, Chairman of Landmark Footwear Ltd and Founding Director of Apex Footwear Ltd, were also present at the event.
Dhaka, Delhi need much stronger framework for future economic ties: Debapriya
Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya has said Bangladesh and India need a “much more robust framework” for their future economic relationship and a change in the framework is important to make that happen.
The macroeconomist and public policy analyst said the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), now on the table, needs to be coherent, dynamic and inclusive to address the challenges ahead and help boost trade and investment between the two countries.
“CEPA has to be coherent, dynamic and inclusive. CEPA is the name of the game,” said Debapriya highlighting Bangladesh-India relations on three fronts -- leftover, built-in and emerging issues.
Also read: New conversation on int'l dev cooperation needed: Debapriya
The former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the World Trade Organization (WTO) made the remarks while delivering his speech at a symposium titled ‘Bangladesh-India Relations: Prognosis for the Future’ held recently.
Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram Kumar Doraiswami delivered the keynote speech at the symposium. Renowned scholar-diplomat and adviser on foreign affairs to the last caretaker government Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury chaired the event hosted by the Cosmos Foundation, philanthropic arm of the Cosmos Group.
Chairman of the Cosmos Foundation Enayetullah Khan delivered the opening remarks at the event.
An array of experts from Bangladesh and India -- former Ambassador Tariq A. Karim, Director, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore Prof C. Raja Mohan, Dhaka University Prof Imtiaz Ahmed, former Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) President Maj Gen (retd) A. N. M. Muniruzzaman, CPD Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun, Brig. Gen. (retd) Shahedul Anam Khan and former Indian Foreign Secretary Krishnan Srinivasan -- were brought together for the online symposium to assess the state of relations between the two countries and identify the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the effort to take it forward.
The noted economist said the leftover issues are very well known to all -- water, border security issues and others which will have to deal with successfully.
He said the built-in issues are essentially the trade, investment, connectivity and all other issues. “We can’t escape from these issues.”
Debapriya said the third set of issues is the emerging issues that include IT, financial inclusions and many other issues.
The renowned economist said they need a framework within which all these three types of issues can be addressed. “We need a framework which will also address the current emphasis of our cooperation on the economic front.”
Also read: Dhaka, Delhi want enhanced connectivity for prosperity
He said Bangladesh and India have achieved quite a lot in the recent past, especially over the last 10 years, with a move from trade focus to more on connectivity one.
“What’s important to make the next step?” he said, highlighting the importance of investment focus -- the production value chain issue.
Debapriya said Bangladesh cannot solve its leftover issues without improving the space for negotiation.
Highlighting Bangladesh’s economic growth, Debapriya said Bangladesh deserves a “less than full reciprocity” in the relationship as it goes.
He said dealing with the external issue, one of the understated dimensions of Indo-Bangla relationship, is how Bangladesh is cooperating with India or how India is cooperating with Bangladesh at the global stage.
Debapriya said India has to be a part of the smooth transition of LDC graduation of Bangladesh, and said India has provided duty- and quota-free market access which helped Bangladesh’s exports to India cross US$ 1.2 billion-dollar mark.
“I think India has to continue with the duty- and quota-free market access in line with other markets providers like the European, Canada and Australia,” the economist said.
He added that this is a declaration that will continue to support Bangladesh with duty- and quota-free market access for the export of garments at least in three years, not nine years, in line with WTO proposals. It will be a great service and it will continue greatly to strengthen the relationship.
CPD Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun said the relationship between Bangladesh and India is covering a wide range of aspects, including trade, investment, power and energy; communication, health, education and culture.
She said the collaboration between the two countries perceives an important factor, not only for the two countries but also for enhancing South Asian cooperation.
Fahmida said they need to understand the challenges and identify the opportunities through concrete actions by both the countries.
The economist laid emphasis on the issue of harnessing advantage of closer bilateral cooperation and leveraging this cooperation to ensure strengthening regional and global integration of the economy.
The CPD economist said Bangladesh needs reimaging its own policies, strategies and options during this journey.
As a large neighbour, she said, India can feature prominently through extending support and cooperation in a number of areas and noted that in the last decade, there were a number of initiatives towards depending bilateral cooperation in different areas, including trade and goods, services, energy, and multimodal transport connectivity, cross-border trade, capacity building, deepening people-to-people connectivity, and also security measures.
“For Bangladesh, there’re many trade-related challenges. One of the important challenges is to make greater use of Indian offer of duty- and quota-free market access. It’s still underutilised,” Fahmida said, adding that there is a huge trade gap, too.
Statistics showed that trade and economic cooperation between India and Bangladesh is much lower than its full potential, she added.
According to the World Bank Study, Bangladesh and India trade economic potential is almost $16 billion, but the actual trade is around $10 billion.
Fahmida said the cost of trading is very high due to lack of trade facilitation and logistic shortcoming.
She said the future relationship between Bangladesh and India will depend on how the challenges are addressed by both the countries.
CPD: Next budget should stress health, social safety
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) on Thursday said the national budget for 2021-22 should highlight several areas including ensuring better health facilities for Covid patients and enhancing social safety net programmes for poor, new poor and marginalised people.
Besides, raising allocation for employment-enhancing infrastructure development projects and supporting agriculture, SMEs and export-oriented industries for their recovery and thereby keeping the existing jobs should be emphasized in the upcoming budget.
The suggestions came up with the webinar of CPD Media Briefing on Recommendations for the National Budget FY2021-22.
Also read: Fall in Bangladesh’s export, govt expenditure a big concern: CPD
CPD Senior Research Fellow Towfiqul Islam Khan read out the presentation while its Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun moderated the function.
Towfiqul Islam said the FY22 budget will need to address the weak performance of FY21 budget implementation, the persistence of adverse impacts of the first wave of Covid-19, continuing stagnation in private investment, the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and failure of the external sector to pick-up as also the medium-term fiscal reform issues with a view to making a recovery sustainable.
“The budget for FY22 needs to give equal importance to receiving funding opportunities and ensuring proper use of the funds. Besides, the revenue mobilisation strategy should be designed considering realistic manner, readjustments in tax provisions, enforcement of tax measures and curbing tax evasion. And implementation of medium-term reform plans should receive high priority,” he added.
Towfiqul informed as the country is passing through the second wave of the pandemic, the policymakers, once again are posed with the challenge of maintaining a balance between the lives and livelihoods.
The official GDP growth of 5.2% in a pandemic year was not so unsatisfactory, particularly because almost all other countries have experienced much more lower if not negative growth. The government had projected a growth rate of 7.4% for FY21, which was a highly optimistic projection.
Also read: Budget traditional, lacks guidelines to address Covid-19 issues: CPD
“CPD reiterates the need for an expansionary macroeconomic stance in the budget for FY22 which accommodates the needed additional public spending. The government should put more efforts for higher foreign aid to underwrite the fiscal deficit. Increased budget deficit should be justified by prudent reallocation and re-prioritisation of public expenditure needs in FY22,” he also added.
In view of Bangladesh’s LDC graduation in 2026, obligations and compliance requirements as a developing country should be identified, and gradually reforms in the taxation system should be put in place.
CPD would like to recommend that NBR introduces taxes for proxies for pollution, by tax region, in alignment with what was mentioned in the “Public Financial Management (PFM) Action Plan 2018-2023 to implement The PFM Reform Strategy 2016-2021” Towfiqul said.
He added that the provision of whitening of black/undisclosed money facility through voluntary disclosure of undisclosed income should be discontinued in the budget for FY22.
CPD Distinguished Fellow Professor Mustafizur Rahman said during the first wave of the Covid-19, they stated poverty rate increased 35 percent from 20 percent due to the pandemic. So, each poor family should provide Tk8,000 in two times in a year.
“If we kept Tk30,000 crore, then it was 1 percent of our GDP. Actually cash transfer is suitable way to assist poor during the pandemic. We have to emphasis on revenue collection otherwise how the government will assist people,” the economist also said.
Mustafizur said reducing corruption and ensuring transparency in all sectors in the country is the most important during the disaster.
CPD Research Director Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem said the government has taken different programs to assist people those really appreciable.
“But, someone takes the assistance several times and someone does not get that. In this context, the government can support from different NGOs who are working with slum dwellers and other poor for proper distribution,” he also said.
Trade union policy strategy: 'Both organised, unorganised workers need attention'
Trade union policy strategy should give attention to both organised and unorganised workers amid the pandemic.
Different worker groups, including regular, temporary, and casual workers and small-scale employers – particularly those self-employed and involved in micro, small and medium enterprises; retailing, construction, road, commerce, tourism, and other informal sectors – are still reeling from the Covid-19 shock.
So, effective social dialogues will be the key to the sustainable recovery of the labour market.
Also read: Uncertain, uneven recovery likely amid unprecedented labour market crisis: ILO
The observations emerged from the virtual dialogue on "Recovery of the Labour Market during Covid-19: Role of Trade Union" jointly organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) on Saturday.
Speaking at the dialogue, Shirin Akhter, member of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Primary and Mass Education and also vice-chairman of BILS, called for increasing the number of enlisted organised workers.
"There are many workers in the formal and informal sector in the country. But we do not have a proper list of them yet. We can grasp the overall situation of employers and workers through social dialogues," she said.
Also read: Women need targeted support to tackle COVID-19 impact: CPD Dialogue
Syed Manzur Elahi, former advisor to the Caretaker Government and chairman of Apex Group, said: "There is a communication gap. So, tripartite coordination has to be ensured among the government, factory owners and workers."
Labour Secretary KM Abdus Salam said, "All stakeholders are heard with equal importance and monitoring is taking place regularly through a central monitoring committee."
Women need targeted support to tackle COVID-19 impact: CPD Dialogue
Speakers at a virtual dialogue on Thursday said fiscal measures would be more effective in easing the burden of the coronavirus pandemic on women than monetary measures.
The government has aptly rolled out a number of liquidity support and fiscal stimulus packages in response to the pandemic, they said.
However, the speakers said, these packages were not designed keeping women in mind, and hence have not been entirely successful in addressing women’s special needs during the pandemic.
They said most women are unaware of the liquidity support while some, who are aware of it, are reluctant to apply for loans.
Due to the economic downturn and the uncertainty regarding the future, women need cash handouts more than loans, they noted.
These observations emerged at the virtual dialogue titled “Socio-Economic Recovery Measures of the Government: How Much Women Have Benefitted” held on Thursday. Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), in partnership with UN Women, hosted the dialogue.
CPD has recently undertaken a study on the theme in collaboration with UN Women. The findings of the study were shared at the dialogue.
This study explores the gender dimension of the government’s COVID-19 policy measures and recommends policies for making the COVID-19 response work for women.
CPD’s Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun made the keynote presentation during the virtual dialogue. She presented some of the highlights from a rapid survey on women entrepreneurs’ access to the stimulus package.
In this respect, she focused on a range of issues, such as providing training for women entrepreneurs and improving women’s access to finance.
She also pointed out that child marriage, burden of unpaid care and domestic work, and violence against women have increased during the pandemic.
Commenting on the promotion of the incentive package, chief guest of the event, Planning Minister MA Mannan said everyone should work together to bring this information to the right people.
He mentioned the government recognises the challenges of women during the pandemic and is working towards improving their situation.
Shoko Ishikawa, Country Representative, UN Women Bangladesh Country Office joined the dialogue as a Special Guest and focused on the global picture of women due to pandemic. She mentioned that globally, 47 million women and girls are forced into poverty because of COVID-19. She also added that all packages need to ensure adequate and transparent delivery for women.
Professor Rounaq Jahan, Distinguished Fellow, CPD chaired the dialogue.
She opined that though COVID-19 added disadvantages for women, a plan of action for specific groups to support in specific areas for women entrepreneurs need to be prepared.
A task force might be formed to monitor the progress of this work.
MSMEs are in the informal financial system and their issues cannot be solved unless they are taken to the formal banking/financial channel, said Dr Lila Rashid, former Executive Director, Bangladesh Bank.
Selim RF Hussain, Managing Director and CEO, BRAC Bank stated that banks should also focus on investing in non-financial advisory services for women entrepreneurs.
Shaheen Anam, Executive Director, Manusher Jonno Foundation; Kaniz Almas, CEO & Managing Director, Persona; Dr Fauzia Moslem, President, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad and Vidiya Amrit Khan, Director, Desh Group of Companies joined the virtual dialogue and delivered their remarks as distinguished discussants.
The dialogue was participated by relevant government officials, business leaders, development activists, experts and academia, representatives from the development partners and media professionals.
BIDS publishes ‘Readings in Bangladesh Development’
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) commemorated Bangabandhu’s birth centenary by publishing two volumes of a “Readings in Bangladesh Development” on Wednesday.