budget
Proposed budget’s social safety allocation not enough, speakers say at CPD dialogue
The allocation for the social safety programmes in the proposed budget for FY2022-23 is not enough, experts at a dialogue of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) said Thursday.
The inclusion of pension benefits and interests on saving certificates included in social safety programmes is depriving the lower-income group, they said.
The experts also called for increasing allocation for labour welfare and keeping a portion of industries' or factories' profit for workers.
Dr Famida Khatun, executive director of CPD, chaired the discussion. Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of CPD, delivered the keynote presentation on the proposed budget.
Planning Minister MA Mannan joined the dialogue as chief guest.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Anisul Islam Mahmud, Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Finance Kazi Nabil Ahmed, and former commerce minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury attended the discussion.
Mannan said, "The government cannot slash incentives in different sectors suddenly. It will take time."
"The government provides food assistance to the lower income groups through family cards and open market sale (OMS),” he said.
Amir Khosru questioned the transparency of the government's inflation and forex reserves data.
The Bangladesh Bank has so far disbursed $7 billion EDF loans from its reserves.
However, the International Monetary Fund said the central bank overstated foreign exchange reserves by showing the EDF with it.
At the dialogue, different NGOs urged the government to make the grant disbursement process, which also adds to the forex reserves, easier.
At present NGOs are receiving around $700 million as grant.
Also read: Budget offers no good news for lower, middle income groups: CPD
Opposition MPs criticise, treasury benches laud budget
Opposition MPs on Tuesday in parliament termed the proposed budget for 2022-23 fiscal as unethical.
They said this while participating in the general discussion on the proposed budget.
“This budget is not a problem-solving budget, nor a people-oriented one. This budget will increase the pressure on the middle class. It is an unethical budget that has given the opportunity to bring back the laundered money without any question,” Jatiya Party lawmaker Shameem Haider Patwari said.
Coming down heavily on Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, the Jatiya Party MP said, "This budget is a business-friendly and plastic-friendly budget. It is also a tobacco company-friendly budget."
He also said the proposed budget has a huge deficit. The budget has said that Tk 98,000 crore will be collected from foreign sources which seems impossible.
“This budget will put pressure on banks, employment and small and medium loans.”
He proposed to increase the tax-free income limit to Tk 5 lakh, increase the capacity of NBR, increase tax capacity, increase the incentive for expatriate income to 5 percent, provide pension to expatriates, and give importance to creating skilled manpower.
READ: Supplementary budget for 2021-22 passed in JS
He also strongly criticized Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen for his unprofessional attitude in dealing with journalists.
BNP MP Zahidur Rahman said the budget was formulated to bring back the smuggled money of money launderers safely.
“This budget is aimed at giving a chance to the beneficiaries and a number of dishonest businessmen to smuggle money,” he said.
He said the proposal to give money smugglers a chance to get their money back with nominal taxes is unethical.
The BNP MP also said giving the opportunity to legalize laundered money is not justifiable from any economic, political or moral point of view.
He demanded to identify the money launderers and confiscate their assets.
Describing the proposed budget as ambitious, the BNP MP said it was not possible to implement the budget.
“There is no effective strategy in this budget to reduce the prices of daily necessities.”
Awami League MP Saber Hossain Chowdhury said, there are many positive aspects in the budget. However, the issue of air pollution should have been included in this budget.
"We make laws here but how much are the people getting its benefits? There are 29 lakh cases pending at different courts. We want to see initiatives and guidance in this regard in the budget,” Saber Hossain said.
Calling for action to control tobacco, Saber Hossain said that 1.60 lakh people die prematurely in Bangladesh every year due to tobacco.
The ruling party lawmaker price of cigarettes is increased every year and taxes are levied on it. But companies are making more money without increasing production costs as a result the government is losing three thousand crore Taka.
He also said the Prime Minister has announced to make Bangladesh tobacco-free by 2040. But the way it is going, the country will not be tobacco-free even in 2080.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury said: "We did not come to the parliament to increase the profit of the tobacco company. We belong to the government party. I was selected with electoral symbol of boat. We stand by every decision of the government. I support that. But when such a situation arises, we have to choose. There is obviously a conflict in the initial proposal of the budget. Then what will we do? Shall we abstain from voting? We don't want that. We want to fully support the budget proposal of the finance minister.”
Ruling AL MPs-Abdus Sobhan, Aroma Dutta, Anwarul Abedin Khan, among others highly lauded the budget terming it pro-people and visionary.
Social stability a must to implement budget: Planning Minister
Planning Minister MA Mannan on Sunday said the economy is facing tough challenges now, and social stability is a must in such a situation to implement a budget whatever its size.
Bangladesh Bank and National Board of Revenue are working under pressure to control inflation and keep fortunes of fixed and lower-income segment stable, he said.
Also read:Growing per capita income contributed to reduce child marriage: Planning Minister
Mannan said this while speaking as the chief guest in the post-budget discussion organized by American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham), held in a hotel in Banani on Sunday.
Former adviser of a caretaker government AB Mirza Azizul Islam, Ahsan H. Mansur, Executive Director, Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI), and Masrur Reaz, Chairman of Policy Exchange, Bangladesh spoke on the occasion.
Mirza Aziz said the budget size is acceptable but allocation in different sectors needs to be revised considering present economic challenges.
He also urged reform of the NBR and bond market, both of which need modernization and reformation to attract investment as well as foreign direct investment.
Ahsan H Mansur presented a keynote paper on different sides of the proposed budget and illustrated that two major problems have emerged: sharply widened trade account deficit due to a surge in imports leading to an unsettled foreign exchange market, and inflationary pressure.
Also read:Now is good time to invest in Bangladesh: Planning Minister
Global price shock in the aftermath of the pandemic due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has led to a decline in inflow of workers’ remittances following reopening of international travel and the widening of the gap between the kerb market and interbank “exchange rate,” he added.
Slow and inadequate flexibility in the exchange rate and the inability to use monetary policy given the interest rate caps on the lending and deposit rates, are acting as restraints on policy, he said.
DU syndicate approves Tk 922.48 cr budget
The Dhaka University (DU) syndicate on Sunday approved a budget of Tk 922.48 crore for the fiscal year 2022-23 which was Tk 831.79 crore in the last year.
The syndicate committee of the university has approved the budget at a syndicate meeting held at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban which was headed by DU Vice-chancellor Professor Md. Akhtaruzzaman.
Also read: DU holds 'Gha' unit admission test
"DU Treasurer Professor Mamtaz Uddin Ahmed presented the proposed budget at the meeting which has been approved to be presented at the nest annual session of syndicate meeting which will be held on June 16," a press release issued by DU public relations said.
Another budget not highlighting childern's interest
Aslam, a student of class seven from Sabujbagh area in the capital is the hope for his poor family to end their struggles by getting a decent job after completing his education.
Four of the six of Aslam’s family members are aged above 40, in ten years who are likely to become financially dependent on him solely. This heavy burden of dependency on Aslam’s young shoulders actually depicts the future demographic dividend (ratio of working age population to dependent population) waiting for Bangladesh by 2050.
By 2050, a smaller number of working-age populations who are children today will need to support a much larger number of dependent populations. As the percentage of children in the total population has been declining, the current higher ratio of more working age people compared to dependent population is only transitory and the window of current demographic dividend will start to close by 2040.
The children of today will be the savior and breadwinners of tomorrow so investing in them is actually an investment into the country's future economic aspirations.
But regrettably there is no way to measure how much the government is allocating for children in Bangladesh as for the third consecutive fiscal year the Child Budget report was not published.
The government on June 9 published the Budget for FY 2022-23 with cautious measures considering the current global economic crisis induced by Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Considering the current economic context a frugal budget deserves to be praised but it cannot be avoided that children should have been in focus more than ever in light of the same backdrop.
What is ‘Child Budget’?
The whole budget allocation of a Fiscal Year has shares for all so the necessity for a separate budget for children can be questioned. To answer that at first the notion of child budget should be cleared. It is not a separate budget for children rather a report on estimations of how much the related ministries are spending from the total public expenditure of a FY.
In FY 2015-16 former Finance Minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhit for the first time unveiled a child budget report on the budgetary allocations of five ministries linked to the development of children in Bangladesh. In neighboring India a similar kind of budget report on children was introduced way back in 2008.
The last report on budget allocations for children was published in FY 2019-20. For the children who constituted two-fifths of the population, allocation in the total budget was only 14.1 percent in FY 2018-19 and 15.3 percent in FY 2019-20 budgets, according to the Ministry of Finance data.
While it was recommended to raise this share to 20 percent by 2020 in the budget speech of FY 2018-19, the government decided to not highlight the child focused allocations for the next three budgets after FY 2019-20.
According to a study conducted by Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) partnered by UNICEF found that the budget of the selected 15 ministries/divisions with child-related development initiatives in FY 2021-22 has increased by 15.8 percent compared to the pre-Covid FY 2019-20 budgets. Yet the share of the child budget in total public expenditure had remained more or less the same, the study concludes.
Reason GoB should refocus on Child Budget
According to experts, investment in children generates the highest return when done in the early stage of life as it facilitates later growth in learning and other skill development and cuts the cost of future investments too.
CPD Distinguished Fellow, Professor Mustafizur Rahman said ensuring the well-being of children is a development issue and also a rights issue enshrined in our Constitution and embedded in various government policies.
According to him in last budget the allocations for children only about 1 per cent gone toward child protection while issues such as child labour, child marriage, learning losses and violence had acquired urgency during the pandemic.
In Bangladesh, 37 million children had their education disrupted by one of the world’s longest pandemic school closures of nearly 18 months, according to a report published by the World Bank on January 23.
The World Bank estimates that learning loss from Covid-19 could cost USD 17 trillion in life-time earning loss globally for the affected students. This amounts to 14 percent of the world's GDP today.
According to Covid-19 orphan hood tool developed by the Imperial College London, estimates of children who lost one or both parents during pandemic in Bangladesh up to June 10, 2022, topped 29,000.
Another budget not reflecting Childern's interest of severely malnourished children seeking treatment in hospitals increased by 72.0 per cent in 2021 compared to previous year, according to government data.
In this scenario, releasing the child budget along with the national budget can allow the concerned entities to monitor and assess the priority that the children deserve in terms of policies and allocations, said Prof Mustafizur Rahman.
To ensure children like Aslam don’t get pushed toward an uncertain future of carrying a nation’s faltering economy ahead, ill-equipped or unequipped, the government refocusing on publishing child budget on a regular basis is rudimentary, he said.
Budget aims to protect interests of govt's benefactors: BNP
Describing the proposed national budget for the next fiscal year as an unrealistic one, BNP on Saturday alleged that it has been formulated only for protecting the interests of the government's benefactors.
"This budget is by no means the budget of the common people. It's just a budget for money launderers and those who siphon off dollars,” said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
He further said, “This year's budget is a completely unrealistic budget at this difficult time of the country. It has been made only for the government-backed people.”
Fakhrul made the remarks while presenting their party’s formal reaction to the national budget at a press conference at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office.
Earlier on Thursday, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presented the budget in Parliament.
Slamming the government for offering amnesty to the money launderers, Fakhrul said the new budget has been formulated to give the looters a scope to legalise and bring back their illegal money home safely.
“This budget has also been made to create an opportunity for the government’s ministers, members of parliament and their relatives and the businessmen to siphon off money abroad,” he observed.
Also read: Budget FY23: It’s a budget of plundering, says Fakhrul
The BNP leader also said the budget has been formulated to allow the ruling party leaders and activists to increase their wealth and make money instead of taking any effective strategy to lower the prices of rice, pulses, salt, sugar, gas, electricity and water and other daily essentials and utility services.
He described the proposed amnesty to money launderers as illegal. "It’s not only immoral but also contrary to the law. It’s also tantamount to pardoning corruption and money laundering."
Fakhrul said this step will make the future of the ongoing money laundering cases uncertain while the launderers will be encouraged to siphon off more money abroad. “This is an unjust, reckless and suicidal move.”
“We think this is also an unconstitutional move which conflicts with the government’s so-called zero tolerance policy against corruption. We strongly condemn it, “he said.
The BNP leader demanded the government annul the scope for legalising the laundered money.
At the same time, he demanded that immediate action be taken against the money launderers by identifying them and confiscating their assets.
Criticising various aspects of the proposed budget, Fakhrul said the new budget is of the businessmen, by the businessmen and for the businessmen. “That means it's a business-friendly budget. Nothing relating to public welfare has been included in the budget.”
Also read: BNP denounces national budget as friendly to looters
He said though the growing inflation rate causing immense public suffering, no step has been taken in the budget to ease their misery. “The tax-free income limit has not been increased and the middle-class people have not been relieved. The import taxes of products that are mainly consumed by the middle-class people have been increased.”
The BNP secretary general also thinks the allocations for the social safety net, health, education and agriculture sectors were not sufficient.
Referring to the budget speech of the Finance Minister on the introduction of digital currency, he said, it is a matter of monetary policy of the Bangladesh Bank. “The Finance Minister can’t interfere in the regulatory jurisdiction of the central bank.”
The BNP leader also bemoaned that the Finance Minister did not say anything about the banking sector that has been grasped by a vicious circle.
He said the minister admitted the rise in the inflation rate but did not make any specific proposal in the budget to control it.
Speaking at the press conference, BNP standing committee member and former health minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said the allocation for the health sector in the proposed budget is typical. “There’s no direction in the budget for addressing the weaknesses that have been identified in this sector during the Covid period.”
BNP standing committee members Mirza Abbas, Nazrul Islam Khan, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Selima Rahman and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, among others, were present at the press conference.
Good governance major challenge to implement budget: FBCCI
The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) on Saturday said good governance is a major challenge in implementing the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2022-23.
FBCCI president Md. Jasim Uddin came with the remark at a press conference on post-budget reaction held at FBCCI Building in Motijheel.
He said, "The size of the budget is very timely to implement the government's commitment to meet the needs and aspirations of people in face of inflation due to Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
He noted the importance of ensuring clear direction and planning for the continuous development of efficiency, transparency, accountability and quality of supervision in the implementation of the proposed budget.
He proposed to include in the budget- employment growth, increased domestic investment, increased food production and continued fertilizer subsidies, emphasis on health, education and human resource development, export diversification, job creation and rural development and completion of PM incentive packages and expansion of social security initiatives.
Read: FBCCI to work for restoring confidence in e-commerce sector
Jasim also expressed his dissatisfaction for not implementing the FBCCI’s recommendations related to tax and VAT.
Replying to a query, the FBCCI president said the trade body does not support money laundering and it brings back the process by paying a nominal tax. This will discourage honest business in the country, he said.
FBCCI senior vice president Mostafa Azad Chowdhury Babu, BKMEA president Mohammad Hatem, DCCI president Rizwan Rahman and leaders of various organizations were present at the press conference.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal placed the budget of Tk 6.78 trillion for the fiscal year 2022-23 on June 9.
The proposed budget’s expenditure for the fiscal year 2022-23 is 14.25 percent more than the revised budget for the outgoing fiscal year. The proposed budget is 12.32 percent more than the original budget of fiscal year 2021-22.
BNP denounces national budget as friendly to looters
Slamming the government for offering an amnesty to plunderers, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday described the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2022-2023 as friendly to looters, not the common people.
“Budget will help those who stole, robbed and looted public money and stashed the cash abroad like PK Halder. They can now bring black money from abroad by paying 7 per cent tax and no one can raise any question against it,” he said.
Speaking at a rally, the BNP leader also said the money launderers will not be caught by the ACC and the apex court will not raise any question against them if they pay the tax.
“So, can I say those who have presented this budget are the government of the common people? Is it a budget for common people? This is a regime of looters, thieves, robbers. They’re now cutting people's pockets and making their own pockets heavier, destroying the economy and the potentials of this country. ”
READ: BNP denounces attack on Saki as scandalous
Dhaka south and north city units of BNP arranged the rally in front of the Jatiya Press Club protesting the hike in prices of essential commodities and gas.
Earlier on Thursday, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal unveiled the Tk 678,064 crore national budget for the financial year 2022-2023 with a special focus on economic recovery from uncertainties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
In the proposed budget, the government offered the amnesty to undisclosed assets or cash of Bangladeshis stashed in foreign countries.
According to the proposed provision, money siphoned off abroad from Bangladesh can be legalised in exchange of seven to fifteen per cent tax.
Terming the government an unelected one, Fakhrul said it has no authority to give the budget to people. “Their misrule for the last 14/15 years has proved that they are the enemy of the people of Bangladesh. They have even now become the mass enemy of people.”
He said budget will not help lower the prices of essential items, house rents, transport fares and fertiliser. “As the price of gas rises, so will the price of fertilizer and all the commodities. But the purchasing capacity of people has not increased so much.”
Stating that the public administration have been given the highest allocation in the budget, he said the government has done it for increasing the salary and various benefits of police, magistrate, DC, UNO and those who worked at Secretariat by cutting money from people's pockets.
“This regime has taken a position against people. They have no love for people. Had they had love for people they would have protected common people’s interests,” he observed.
He said 42 per cent population of the county has gone down below the poverty line as a result of the development of the Awami League government. “Awami League has never done anything for those (poor) people in the current budget or in previous ones.”
Fakhrul called upon the government to quit power and dissolve the parliament by handing it over to a neutral administration without buying any more time.
He said democracy will be restored in the country through a credible election to be conducted by an impartial Election Commission under a non-party government.
Otherwise, he warned that BNP together with the country’s people will oust the government through a strong movement.
Budget to make economy stronger: Finance Minister
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Friday hoped that the implementation of the proposed national budget for FY2022-2023 would make the economy stronger and more vibrant.
“Hopefully our economy will be stronger and more vibrant with the implementation of this budget,,” he said at a post-budget conference in the city’s Osmani Smriti Auditorium in the afternoon.
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.
Budget 2022-23: Home Ministry gets Tk 1893 more to spend than current fiscal
An amount of Tk 28,781 crore has been proposed for the Public Security and Security Service divisions under the Home Ministry in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2022-23, up by Tk 1893 crore, from the outgoing fiscal year 2021-22.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal announced the proposed budget while addressing budget speech in the National Parliament today (Thursday).
Of the total allocation, Tk 24,594 crore has been allocated for the Public Security division, while the remaining Tk 4,187 crore for the Security Service division.
These allocations include important state agencies providing security and emergency services such as the police, the Fire Service, etc.