Staff Reporter :
Leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party [BNP] have said that the budget was announced to ‘fill up the pockets’ of ruling party lawmakers and ministers.
“The government which has no legality, how can it announce budget? Actually, the budget has been announced for pocketing more and more money by the ministers and lawmakers,” Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, senior joint Secretary General, BNP said yesterday in an instant reaction.
He said, “It’s a fake budget. There is nothing of people’s welfare in the budget. It will be a corruption-protection budget.”
Apart from Rizvi, several other BNP leaders in their instant reactions have also termed it a ‘budget for looting’. They said it would not be possible to implement the budget; rather it would ‘suck the people’. With the announcement of this budget, the government has apparently opened the door for ‘massive corruption’. Now, the looting will be rampant in all mega development projects, they said.
Earlier, the annual budget [2016-17] was announced by Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the National Parliament on Thursday with a view to ‘keeping the economic growth steady, continuation of development and building equilibrium society’. It was the third budget of ruling Awami League government in its second tenure, and also the tenth consecutive budget announced by the incumbent Finance Minister.
BNP leader and party’s standing committee member Lieutenant General [Rtd] Mahbubur Rahman has expressed utmost uncertainty over the implementation of budget. “It will be highly challenging during implementation. As per budget, mega project will be taken by the government apparently to pave the way for looting,” he said.
He said, “So far I think, it is not wise to announce big budget in context of Bangladesh borrowing money from local and international sources. It will not bring any profit to ordinary people, or nation. The nation will have to refund the borrowings.”
In an instant reaction, BNP standing committee member Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said the newly announced budget would create an adverse impact on the people.
He said: “One-third of the budget is deficit. The people will have to bear the brunt of additional taxes. The newly introduced taxes will be realised from general people directly or indirectly. I don’t know for what reason the government has announced such a budget.”
“The government still could not implement the last year’s budget. Now it’s a bigger budget. I think, the government cannot implement this budget also, like the previous year,” the BNP leader said.
Drawing sharp criticism, another BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas said, “The big ambitious target of revenue in the budget will appear as a fear factor in front of general people. At the same time, the VAT introduced directly and indirectly in the new budget will be heavy burden for people.”
He also said that the budget had been announced by the government with ‘an ill intention’.
