Staff Reporter :
Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan), a civil society platform for good governance, on Friday underlined the urgent need to reform the budgetary system for achieving the country’s desired goal to become the middle income country.
“There is little practice of accountability and democracy in maintaining the budgetary system. The system should be reformed,” Shujan said.
The leaders of the platform said this in its reaction to the proposed national budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year at Jatiya Press Club on Friday.
According to the constitution, the lawmakers do nothing other than passing the budget by voice vote in the parliament,” it said.
Shujan President M Hafiz Uddin Khan presided over the programme, while its Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar moderated it.
Eminent economist Professor Anu Muhammad and researcher of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies Naznin Ahmed, spoke at the programme, among others.
Shujan President M Hafiz Uddin Khan said, the financial policy should be based on the three fundamental aspects such as equity, human dignity and justice for well management of the economy.
Otherwise, the desired goal will remain elusive, he said.
“Finance minister is one of the 10 richest men in the country. So how could he realise our pain,” he questioned.
Eminent economist Professor Anu Muhammad said the trend of collecting tax directly from people is going up.
He also suggested the government to introduce January-December or April-March as the fiscal year instead of June-July to boost the development works.
The budgetary funds are wasted due to beginning of the fiscal year from June-July and development work is also hampered because of monsoon, he said.
Claiming that discussion on the funds allocated in the budget is not held in the Parliament, Anu Muhammad said, the overall situation in implementing the mega projects was in bad shape and now it took an acute turn.
The government spends two to three times higher than US and China in constructing high-rise buildings, highways and bridges, he alleged.
He also came down hard on the finance minister for keeping a provision in the proposed budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year for whitening black money and said the government is very much flexible in this regard.
Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan), a civil society platform for good governance, on Friday underlined the urgent need to reform the budgetary system for achieving the country’s desired goal to become the middle income country.
“There is little practice of accountability and democracy in maintaining the budgetary system. The system should be reformed,” Shujan said.
The leaders of the platform said this in its reaction to the proposed national budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year at Jatiya Press Club on Friday.
According to the constitution, the lawmakers do nothing other than passing the budget by voice vote in the parliament,” it said.
Shujan President M Hafiz Uddin Khan presided over the programme, while its Secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar moderated it.
Eminent economist Professor Anu Muhammad and researcher of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies Naznin Ahmed, spoke at the programme, among others.
Shujan President M Hafiz Uddin Khan said, the financial policy should be based on the three fundamental aspects such as equity, human dignity and justice for well management of the economy.
Otherwise, the desired goal will remain elusive, he said.
“Finance minister is one of the 10 richest men in the country. So how could he realise our pain,” he questioned.
Eminent economist Professor Anu Muhammad said the trend of collecting tax directly from people is going up.
He also suggested the government to introduce January-December or April-March as the fiscal year instead of June-July to boost the development works.
The budgetary funds are wasted due to beginning of the fiscal year from June-July and development work is also hampered because of monsoon, he said.
Claiming that discussion on the funds allocated in the budget is not held in the Parliament, Anu Muhammad said, the overall situation in implementing the mega projects was in bad shape and now it took an acute turn.
The government spends two to three times higher than US and China in constructing high-rise buildings, highways and bridges, he alleged.
He also came down hard on the finance minister for keeping a provision in the proposed budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year for whitening black money and said the government is very much flexible in this regard.
