budget
AMA Muhith: The architect of AL's era of development no more
One of the most formidable figures in the country’s political arena, one whose legacy still steers the country’s journey, and as the holder of the most important portfolio in the cabinet for 10 years at a stretch, the architect of the Bangladesh economy as it stands today, AMA Muhith, son of Sylhet, has passed away.
He – an economist, diplomat, freedom fighter and language veteran – passed away at a city hospital in the wee hours (12:56am) of Saturday, his brother Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told UNB.
Muhith, 88, had been keeping unwell for quite some time. In July 2021, he tested positive for Covid, but fought that back.
Then in March, he was hospitalised again as he became enfeebled in his old age.
Muhith's first janaza will be held at Gulshan Azad Mosque at 10:30am Saturday and the second at 11:30am at the Parliament premises, Momen said.
Afterwards, his body will be taken to Central Shaheed Minar at 2pm for public homage and after that to Sylhet for burial.
President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed their grief at the death of Muhith.
Foreign Minister Momen Saturday expressed deep shock at the death of his brother.
In a condolence message, he prayed for the salvation of the departed soul and conveyed deep sympathy to the bereaved family members.
Momen fondly remembered Muhith's extraordinary personality, human qualities, patriotism and contribution to the welfare of the country and the people.
In a separate message, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam also expressed his grief at the death of Muhith.
Muhith, as the finance minister of the Awami League government, presented the budget in the parliament for 10 years at a stretch.
It was during his tenure that the size of the budget expanded.
On January 6, 2009, Muhith took oath as the finance minister of Bangladesh.
He retired from politics after serving as the finance minister of Sheikh Hasina's government from 2009 to 2018.
Muhith was born on 25 January 1934 in Dhopadighi, Sylhet.
He was the third child of Advocate Abu Ahmad Abdul Hafiz who was a leader of the Pakistan Movement and the founder of the then Sylhet District Muslim League.
His mother Syed Shahar Banu Chowdhury was also active in politics and social work.
Muhith had been a recognised figure in the World Bank, IMF, IDB, ADB and different organisations of the United Nations for quite a long period.
He secured first place in the intermediate examination in the province in 1951 from Sylhet MC College.
Muhith stood first class first in BA in English Literature in 1954 from Dhaka University and passed his MA with credit from the same university in 1955.
During his service period, he studied at Oxford University from 1957-58 and received an MPA degree from Harvard University in 1964.
After joining Pakistan Civil Service in 1956, he served in different capacities in the East Pakistan government, the central government of Pakistan, and then Bangladesh.
During his service as the chief and deputy secretary of the Pakistan Planning Commission, he made a report on the disparity between East and West Pakistan in 1966, and that was the first report submitted on that issue in the Pakistan National Assembly in fulfilment of the constitutional obligation.
Muhith was the first diplomat of the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington who transferred his allegiance to Bangladesh in June during the Liberation War of 1971.
He was appointed as the secretary of planning in January 1972 and secretary of the External Resources Division of the Finance and Planning Ministry in May 1977.
Muhith went for early retirement in 1981 from his service and started the second chapter of his career as a consultant on economic and development matters at the Ford Foundation, IFAD, UN, UNDP, ADB and World Bank.
He was finance and planning minister from March 1982 to December 1983.
Muhith was also a pioneer of the Bangladesh Environment Movement and the founder and president of BAPA established in 2000.
He joined the Awami League in 2001 and was elected a member of parliament in 2009 from his home constituency in Sylhet.
Muhith was awarded the highest civil award Swadhinata Padak (Independence Award) in 2016 for his contribution to the Liberation War and devoted record of public service.
He was equally gifted as a writer and published 35 books on different subjects, including the Liberation War, economic development, history, public administration and political problems.
National Budget to be placed in Parliament on June 9 : Mustafa Kamal
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said that the upcoming national budget will be placed in the Parliament on June 9.
He announced this while briefing reporters after the two consecutive meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and Cabinet Com mitre on Public Purchase on Wednesday.
Responding to reporters’ questions, Kamal said that he has no plan to increase the taxes.
“Lowest income tax will be set considering the affordability of the people. We will try to fix the minimum tax considering the increasing cost of living”, he told the reporters.
The finance minister said the government will control the import of luxury items. But there is no plan to control import of essential commodities.
He noted that both import and export have increased. But always import is larger than export and export cannot overtake import in our country.
“Some imports are directly related with projects which we have to allow. Some imports must be controlled as those are not always open”, he said.
He said as far as any internal vulnerability exists, these luxury items will be controlled.
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“If the situation becomes normal, then we will allow import of these items”, he opined.
Referring to a report of the World Bank the finance minister said globally the market prices have gone up by 38 per cent while price of beef has increased by 35 per cent, chicken by 55 per cent, soya bean oils by 35 per cent, tea by 13 per cent, TSP fertiliser by 65 per cent and urea fertiliser by 135 per cent.
The government has to take coordinated measures to control the market, said Kamal.
Budget needs realistic expenditure plan for pandemic recovery: CPD
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has urged the government to prepare a realistic budget with a clear implementation pathway for the upcoming fiscal year 2022-23.
The CPD, a think tank and research organization, also gave some recommendations for the budget focusing on the country’s graduation to a developing economy by 2026, budget implementation structure strengthening and budget allocation based on risk factors and their recovery plan.
Also read:Food prices much higher in Bangladesh than global markets: CPD study
The CPD disclosed its budget recommendation at a press conference, held at CPD’s office in Dhanmondi on Tuesday.
Dr. Fahmida Khatun, CPD’s Executive Director, read out the budget proposals, while professor Mustafizur Rahman, distinguish fellow of CPD, Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director and Towfiqul Islam Khan, senior research fellow, replied to queries from reporters about the recommendations.
The CPD stressed on reforming the overall tax-revenue sector both in technological advancement and institutional capability and set a unified tax system along with justifying tax exemption facilities.
After graduation, Bangladesh will face a challenge on imposing import duty, which is needed to adjust in the revenue earning plan in line with the post-LDC situation.
The CPD urged more transparency, institutional accountability in public expenditure along with in general accessibility in the data of public expenditure to ensure good governance.
Export incentive sector needs to reform with a unified system so that the real eligible sector can only get the incentives.
The CPD urged to increase budget expenditure in education, agriculture sector, children and women health development to build a healthy and developed nation by 2030.
The budget recommendations have also focused on increasing allocation for social safety nets in phases for pandemic recovery and global impact of food price hike.
The recommendations said that the marginal people are very much suffering due to the pandemic, while food inflation pushing price hike makes their life miserable further.
Also read: Budget implementation failure lack of available data: CPD
The fixed income group and marginal people would face nutrition problems if the food becomes costlier as their income was affected by the pandemic and it is not resilient so far. The budget needs to set incentives for marginal people in different shapes like subsidies in food prices.
The think tank proposed a stable exchange rate of Bangladesh Taka with US dollar as it impacted both the price hike of commodities in the domestic market and increased the price of industrial production cost.
Appreciating the government strategy of pandemic recovery, CPD said the government policy is right but implementation is complex and sometimes delay the process of distribution.
Govt braces for increased interest payment on local and external borrowings: official document
The government’s payment on interest for loans will increase in the coming days despite reducing the rate of interest on borrowings, according to an official document.
The government has to pay some Tk 775.5 billion for interest payment in the coming 2022-23 fiscal which is 11.8 per cent of the total budget, says the document obtained by UNB.
The overall interest rate will be 5.1 per cent for the next fiscal, down from 5.3 per cent in the running FY2021-22.
The document says that some Tk 698 billion will be given as interest for the loans taken from the domestic sources while Tk 77.6 per cent for the external sources.
The amount of interest payment has been projected at Tk 881.6 billion for the FY2023-24, which is 11.8 per cent of the total budget with 5 per cent interest rate.
Also read: Govt aims to reduce budget deficit to 5.7% in upcoming financial year, says official document
The document mentions that some Tk 794.3 billion will be paid as interest for the loans taken from the domestic sources while Tk 87.3 per cent for the external sources.
For the running FY2021-22 the government has earmarked Tk 685.9 crore as interest payment, which is 11.4 per cent of the total budget and the overall interest rate is 5.3 per cent.
Budget implementation failure lack of available data: CPD
Speakers at a dialogue on Thursday said that the timely disclosure of accurate fiscal data is essential for improving the implementation of the national budget and attainment of the national development objectives.
They said lack of timely disclosure of fiscal data is constraining delivery of the national budget allocation and depriving the marginalised people of receiving the required government support.
The observations emerged at the dialogue titled ‘Challenges of Improving Fiscal Data for Policymaking in Bangladesh’, held in city hotel on Thursday. The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organised the programme in partnership with The Asia Foundation.
Professor Rehman Sobhan, Chairman, CPD shared his special remarks at the dialogue.
Vice Principal Dr Md. Abdus Shahid, MP, Member, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts; Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP, Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Member, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Planning; Kazi Nabil Ahmed, MP, Member, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Shameem Haider Patwary, MP, Member, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs present as the Eminent Reflection Panelist at the dialogue.
Ranjit Kumar Chakraborty, Former Additional Secretary, Ministry of Finance; Director, Sonali Bank; and Dr Zahid Hussain, Eminent Economist and Former Lead Economist, The World Bank participated in the program as distinguished discussants.
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Kazi Faisal Bin Seraj, Country Representative, The Asia Foundation delivered the introductory remarks.
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Study Team Leader and Distinguished Fellow, CPD chaired the session.
Towfiqul Islam Khan, Senior Research Fellow, CPD made a keynote presentation at the dialogue on ‘fiscal data in Bangladesh issues and challenges.
Prof. Sobhan hypothesised that the quality of data would be maintained if the generated data is derived from the needs of the primary data users and policymakers.
However, the majority of demand for change in data quality comes from outside the government, which is a critical weakness as the driver of change should be from within the government.
Dr Debapriya said that fiscal data has a critical role not only from the perspectives of accountability and transparency for the development process of the country but also for policy making.
The prevailing dearth of timely delivery of quality fiscal data as per the demand may have emerged from several sources, including lack of awareness, capacity, urgency for sustainability, and absence of procedure and application.
He opined that a political stimulus would be required to bring positive changes to this end.
Dr Zahid said data regarding state-owned enterprise is crucial and reformation is needed in this regard.
“Moving forward will include providing a calendar for data release as well as for data revision, especially given that data discrepancy is unavoidable. Moreover, providing reports in a PDF format is akin to still maintaining a paper-based system. Therefore, we need to utilize an excel based platform to make data not just available but user friendly,” headed.
Read: Businesses in Bangladesh face challenges of inefficient administration, funding shortage and corruption: CPD study
Dr Shahid underscores the fact that only data driven decisions can make policymaking more transparent.
The government is carrying out many activities, but often they are not reflected in data, he said.
Saber said that data revolution is a key prerequisite for achieving sustainable development goals.
Data accessibility and transparency have always been lacking from the government end. The data producers either do not want to share or don’t have a systematic way of data collection, he said.
As elected representatives of the citizens, the MPs need to have access and take cognisance of data so that they can provide more useful and precise opinions and solutions, he added.
The Ministry of Finance must take the lead to ensure better delivery of fiscal data to aid budgetary decisions. The producers of fiscal data, particularly the Ministry of Finance, appear to be quite content with the present status quo of fiscal data.
To bring forth the much-required improvement, there is a need for a big push from the demand side, particularly on the part of policymakers, including the elected public representatives.
At present, this charge is being led by the data analysts. It was further stated that the improvement in the area of fiscal data would require considerable political will and a change in the mind-sets of core actors. Political incentives shall need to be created to bring such changes.
Parliament passes new budget of ‘lives and livelihoods’
Parliament passed the Tk 603,681 crore national budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 on Wednesday, the last day of the outgoing fiscal year (2020-21).
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal moved the Appropriations Bill, 2021 seeking a budgetary allocation of Tk 792,912.95 crore which was passed by voice vote.
On Tuesday, Parliament passed the Finance Bill 2021 with some changes.
Following the proposal mooted in the House by the Finance Ministry for the parliamentary approval of appropriation of funds for meeting necessary development and non-development expenditures of the government, the ministers concerned placed justifications for the expenditures by their respective ministries through 59 demands for grant.
Earlier, Parliament rejected by voice vote 625 cut-motions that stood in the name of opposition members on 59 demands for grants for different ministries.
Twelve MPs from Jatiya Party and BNP submitted their cut-motions on the budget, themed as "Bangladesh towards a resilient future protecting lives and livelihoods'.
Also read: Parliament passes Finance Bill, allows whitening of undisclosed money
They are Kazi Firoze Rashid, Rustam Ali Farazi, Mujibul Huq, Fakhrul Imam, Pir Fazlur Rahman, Shamim Haider Patwari, Begum Rawshan Ara Mannan, Harun Ur Rashid, Mosharrof Hossain, Liaquat Hossain Khoka, Mokabbir Kan, and Rumeen Farhana.
They were, however, allowed to participate in the discussion on Law Ministry, Secondary and Higher Education Division and Health Services Division.
Later, Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury applied guillotine to quicken the process of passing the demands for grants for different ministries without giving the lunch break.
Opposition and independent MPs were present in the House when the Appropriation Bill was passed in Parliament and they did not raise any voice against passing of the bill.
The finance minister on June 3 placed a Tk 603,681 crore-national budget for 2021-22 fiscal to get the economy moving in spite of the crippling Covid-19 pandemic with a strong focus on vaccinating the population and shoring up their jobs.
A bold target has been set to achieve 7.2 per cent of GDP growth with a deficit totalling Tk. 214,618 crore, which is 6.2 per cent of GDP.
To meet the deficit, Tk 101,228 crore will come from external sources, while Tk 113,453 crore from domestic sources of which Tk 76,452 crore will come from the banking system and Tk 37,001 crore from savings certificates and other non-bank sources.
Also read: Medical College (Governing Bodies) (Repeal), Bill 2021 placed in parliament
The growth rate for 2021-2022 has been fixed at 7.2 percent, remaining consistent with the government’s long-term plan and taking the post-Covid recovery situation into account while expecting the inflation rate will be 5.3 per cent during the period.
Total allocation for operating and other expenditures has been set at Tk 378,357 crore, while the allocation for the annual development program is Tk 225,324 crore.
The total revenue income in the fiscal year 2021-2022 has been fixed at Tk 389,000 crore, which is 11.3 percent of GDP. Out of this, Tk 330,000 crore will be collected through the NBR sources. Tax revenue from non-NBR sources has been estimated at Tk 16,000 crore, while the non-tax revenue is estimated to be Tk 43,000 crore.
The allocation for the social infrastructure sector in the next fiscal budget is Tk 170,510 crore, which is 28.25 percent of total allocation, in which allocation for human resources sector (education, health and other related sectors) will be Tk 155,847 crore.
The allocation proposed for the physical infrastructure sector will be Tk. 179,681 crore or 29.76 percent, in which Tk 74,102 crore will go to overall agriculture and rural development, Tk 69,474 crore to overall communications, and Tk 27,484 crore to power and energy.
A total of Tk 1,45,150 crore has been allocated for general services, which is 24.04 percent of the total allocation. Tk 34,648 crore is for public-private partnerships (PPP), financial assistance to different industries, subsidies, equity investments in state-owned, commercial and financial institutions, which is 5.74 percent of the total allocation.
Tofail, Firoz lament growing importance of amlas at the expense of politicians
Two front bench MPs from the treasury and opposition on Monday expressed their frustration at bypassing political leaders in various emergency periods like the COVID-19 pandemic.Ruling Awami League’s senior lawmaker Tofail Ahmed and Jatiya Party MP Kazi Firoz Rashid expressed their anger and frustration in Parliament while speaking on the general discussion on the next fiscal budget.AL senior lawmaker Tofail Ahmed said: "Now the administrative officers have been given the responsibility in our district. People think that all the help we gave to the people during Corona was given by these administrative officials."
Also read: Tofail also criticises budget, finds ‘inconsistencies’
But the administrative officials did not go to the area, he claimed."The person who has been given responsibility in my area has never come even for a day,” Tofail said, expressing his frustration.The senior most parliamentarian said that it was unfortunate.There is not a single MP in parliament who did not stand by the poor and distressed persons during this Coronavirus period. Everyone is standing by the people, he said.In this connection, he said that he has given relief to 40,000 people in his area."But people think that the administrative officials have given all this.”
Also read: Close Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee: Firoz RashidHe said that the authority and work of a political government and politicians have faded away nowadays.Tofail criticising the planning minister who recently said that there were bureaucrats even in Pharaoh's time, said: "People don't like these words."He said that according to the warrant of precedence, MPs are above the secretaries."This thing needs to be noticed. We will need officials from the administration, but not with the exclusion of politicians."Tofail said politicians are the elected representatives and they should have their specific place and job for them and they should remain there.
Also read: It’s hand to mouth budget, rather to recover the economy: Inu“A secretary will go to our district. We'll welcome him. There is no problem in it. But they do not go there even for a day.” He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina became the Prime Minister in 1996. At that time the ministers were in charge of the district. Party’s leaders and activists thronged there when they used to visit any district. Those days are gone now.Kazi Firoz Rashid also echoed Tofail Amed. He said there is no politics in the country today. Secretaries were given responsibility for each district.Jatiya Party MP Firoz said the Prime Minister spoke to the Deputy Commissioners at different programmes and MPs' positions at those programmes remained at a distance."Later (after the programme), MPs requested DC’s…they want to talk a little with the Prime Minister. This is the situation of politicians," he expressed his anger.He said when the Prime Minister speaks to the DCs, the importance of MPs becomes less. "Tofail Ahmed has perfectly mentioned this issue."The senior Jatiya Party MP said that the political arenas are slowly being occupied by businessmen."Who is running the country? Businessmen and bureaucrats are running the country. We politicians are now standing in the third line. This is our bad luck. But this country has been liberated by politicians."He said that it is the politicians, not the businessmen who have political commitment. They hold umbrellas to tell in which direction the wind blows."We were also in power, we have bitter experience in this regard," he warned.
CGS webinar on Budget 2021-2022: Business friendly or lacks transparency ?
Speakers at a webinar on Friday engaged in a healthy debate on if the national budget 2021-2022 was a ‘one step forward’ or if it severely lacked accountability and transparency.
Planning Minister M.A. Mannan MP stated that the government is on the right track in formulating the budget.
He also stated that a deficit budget is necessary for growth and poverty alleviation.
The planning minister said that the budget was business-friendly and “one step forward” for the country, but he did highlight that he has not seen the rate of growth in Bangladesh’s economy that he had expected to see yet.
However, Center for Policy Dialogue executive director Fahmida Khatun said that the implementation of the budget lacks accountability and transparency, and highlighted the lack of discourse on the budget at the parliament.
READ: Publish gender-budget report, Mahila Parishad urges govt
“The budget has been prepared using a top-down approach, and inputs from the grassroots levels have not been taken into consideration. The stimulus package or other incentives work only when there is an honest business environment, which is lacking in the country,” she said.
According to her, the budget also doesn’t provide sufficient guidance of recovery for Bangladesh after the pandemic.
They came up with the remarks while addressing an online discussion organised by the Centre for Governance Studies on the proposed National Budget for 2021-2022.
Former commerce minister and BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said that t people are too focused on the details of the budget and not paying attention to the actual unique economic model in Bangladesh. He stipulated that the whole economy has been geared to serve the interest of certain syndicates who are responsible for vast amounts of money laundering and black money. Since these money laundering schemes are also factored into the GDP measure of the country, he argued that key indicators of development in Bangladesh are being distorted. He emphasised that political decisions have to be made while keeping the interests of the general public and not powerful groups and syndicates.
READ: Budget document: Preparations under way to face the challenges of developing economy
Besides, former National Board of Revenue chairman Muhammad Abdul Mazid, Dhaka University professor Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir and Economist Muhammed Parvez Imdad were among the notable speakers at the event.
It’s hand to mouth budget, rather to recover the economy: Inu
Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal President Hasanul Huq Inu on Tuesday said that although the finance minister identified the priority sectors correctly, but the budget allocation to these sectors are not correct."This budget is not for recovering the economy, rather it is the budget to just live the year from hand to mouth. There will be growth but not the inauguration of a well-balanced economy," he said while taking part in the general discussion on the budget proposals for 2021-22 fiscal. He claimed that there was a scope to step outside the box accommodating the experiences from home and abroad, and formulate clear farsighted plan to prepare to fight the coronavirus and revive the economy.
Also read: Poor, jobless people largely ignored in budget: BNP
"But that does not happen," he added.Talking about lack of good governance in the health sector, he said that everybody knows that what is happening in public purchasing in all sectors including the health.He mentioned that there is only news of corruption in the health sector, they got less allocation, but they could not utilise their previous allocation properly."They just earn bad name of corruption in whatever they have done in the name of purchasing. As a result the country does not get oxygen plants in right time," he said.He also alleged that there was no good management although the government procured various materials related with fight against Covid-19 pandemic.
Also read: JS passes Tk 13,987.27 cr supplementary budgetThe Jasod chief said syndicate prevails in project formulation, expenditures and implementation.He called for transparency and accountability in the public procurement by wiping out the identified syndicate of corruption.Inu stressed that the number one priority of the government should be procurement of corona vaccine and stop mismanagement and anomalies."There should be a process to produce vaccine in the country, all should get vaccine within one year, coronavirus has to be defeated, otherwise everything will be meaningless," he said.He said that although some people think that corruption is the companion of development, but he does not believe in that theory."I believe that development without corruption is possible, pace of development will be accelerated many times," he said.
Also read: New budget proposals inadequate in tackling poverty, say rights groupsInu also advocates for good governance in ruling the country and implementing the budget.He mentioned that there was a need to take steps for bringing structural change in health, education, social safety net, food security and internet usage by adopting those as basic rights."We could do that this time if we want," he said.
Finance Minister dismisses the claim of 2.5 crore new poor
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday discounted a claim that the coronavirus pandemic has made up to 2.5 crore new poor in the country.
“I don’t believe that 2-2.5 crore people are now below the poverty line. I need to know from where some research organizations have collected the figure”, he told a reporter after attending a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase.
Read: ARTICLE 19 lauds tax exemption move for 3rd gender citizens in proposed budget
He said the government has its own research bodies and they are now working on it. “I will look into it when the government bodies complete their findings”.
He said no figure will be acceptable before the government’s own research bodies’ present their findings.
Read: JS passes Tk 13,987.27 cr supplementary budget
Defending the proposed national budget for fiscal 2021-22, the finance minister said his budget has no weak points.
Trashing the comments of some economists that the budget has failed to address the problems of corona-affected low income groups, he said everything in the budget is strong.
Read: New budget proposals inadequate in tackling poverty, say rights groups
“You will see the results of the budget that it would serve the interest of poor people when implementation starts”, he said.
He said he has followed the Prime Minister’s instruction to bring the poor people within the mainstream of the economy.