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

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said the government is obliged by a law that those who will bring back their laundered money home will not be questioned any more. Defending his move, announced in the national budget for FY2022-23, he said most of such money is undeclared and smuggled out due to the faulty system. He made this remark while addressing a post-budget press conference at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the city on Friday.      Also read: Budget offers no good news for lower, middle income groups: CPD Fielding a volley of questions on the issue, he said many countries in Asia, America and Europe have declared amnesty for the money launderers.   According to a provision declared in the newly placed national budget, no authority, including the income tax collectors, shall raise any question as to the source of any asset located abroad if a taxpayer pays extra taxes on such assets. The proposed rate is 15 per cent for immovable property not repatriated to Bangladesh, 10 per cent for movable property not repatriated to Bangladesh and 7 per cent for cash and cash equivalents repatriated to Bangladesh.  This will take effect from July 1. A question was asked by a reporter that in the past the government had declared a "Truth Commission" and provided scope for legalising illegal money through paying tax, but later the names of the persons who took the opportunity were disclosed. So, how could people trust the new assurance and take the opportunity? Answering the question, Kamal said the government will use some tools so that people will be encouraged to bring the smuggled illegal money back.   "But this will not discourage or undermine those people who regularly pay taxes", he added. Supporting his view Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzak, who present on the occasion, supported the government move in this regard and said that the Truth Commission was formed during the caretaker government which was a non-constitutional government. "But Awami League is a constitutional government and the relevant law is passed by the government to give the guarantee to the people not to raise any question in future", he added. The finance minister claimed that the newly unveiled national budget will bring benefits for all the segments of the society, specially, for the poor. "I was born in a poor family and raised up from poverty. So, I do feel the pain of the poor", he said, adding that so many measures including allocation for social safety-net programmes were increased in the new budget.     

Education Minister Dipu Moni on Friday said the government would publish a list of education institutions within a week for bringing them under the government’s pay order. “We think we’ll be able to make the list, we’re now working for the MPO (Monthly Pay Order) enlistment, to be published within a week,” she said at a post-budget press conference in the city’s Osmani Smriti Auditorium in the afternoon. Replying to a question, the minister said the government will surely enlist the education institutions under the MPO net, but didn’t disclose the number. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, Health Minister Zahid Maleque, State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam, Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir, Finance Senior Secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder and Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem spoke at the conference. The finance minister on Thursday unveiled the Tk 678,064-crore national budget for the financial year 2022-2023 with special focus on economic recovery from uncertainties caused by Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. In reply to a question about the budgetary allocation for education, Dipu said the budget of the Education Ministry increased by 19.72 per cent (some 20 per cent) this time comparing to the previous year. Besides, the allocation for research and development budget also rose in this sector. Now they’ve to pay stronger attention to the effective utilization of the allocations made for them, she said, adding that not only his ministry and primary education ministry, rather a total of 28 ministries are working on education and development of human resources. She thanked the prime minister and the Finance Ministry for preparing the pro-people budget amid the current global situation. In the proposed budget, the allocation for education is Tk 81,449 crore in the 2022-23 fiscal year increasing from Tk 71,974 crore in the 2021-22 fiscal year. The allocation against education still remains less than 2 per cent of the country’s GDP. Tk 31,761 crore was allocated against the Primary and Mass Education Ministry for the upcoming fiscal year, while Tk 39,961 crore against the Secondary and Higher Education Division and Tk 9,727 against Technical and Madrasa Division. We’re happy with allocation: Health Minister In the press conference, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said some Tk 40,000 crore (exactly Tk 36,863 crore) was allocated for health sector this time, which is some 5.5 per cent (exact 5.43 per cent) of the total budget. “The budget puts a high emphasis on health and education. So, we’re very happy,” he said replying to a question if he and his colleague Dipu Moni are satisfied over the allocations for health and education sectors. The health minister said medical research, non-contagious diseases, vaccination production and improved health system were highlighted in the budget. The import duty on health equipment and raw materials were reduced, he said.