Staff Reporter :The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) on Friday observed that the government did not give any clear outline to boost confidence of investors, expenditure plans, and deficit financing in the proposed National Budget for 2016-17 fiscal year.”We are agreed with goals and targets of the budget by and large. But there are problems in the structures of revenue collection and expenditure,” CPD distinguished fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said.He explained the view of the CPD at a post-budget discussion on Friday. CPD Executive Director Professor Mustafizur Rahman, its Director (Dialogue and Commission) Anisatul Fatema Yousuf, Additional Research Director Khondaker Golam Moazzem and Research Fellow Towfiqul Islam Khan were present, among others.Debapriya Bhattacharya also said the implementation of the proposed budget for 2016-17 fiscal would face challenges, as there is uncertainty as to how the targeted revenue will be collected.”Attaining the proposed fiscal framework for FY17 is going to be an uphill task if inability to mobilise the targeted domestic resources and spend the earmarked allocation, failure to use foreign aid in the pipeline and opting for non-concessional foreign loans continue,” he said. He said ‘overestimation’ and the failure to achieve targets at the end of financial years was creating a ‘crisis of confidence’. He said that he differed with those who described Finance Minister AMA Muhith’s Tk 3.4 trillion budget as ‘big’ or ‘historic’ because, despite an increase in monetary outlay each year, budgets had remained confined to 14 percent of the overall size of the economy.About the growth rate, he said, “We think the achievement of the targeted 7.2 percent growth of GDP is nothing impossible and which is essential also. But an additional Tk 80,000 crore private investment is needed to attain the target.”The growth of non-development expenditure is higher than development expenditure, which is a new feature of the budget, the CPD distinguished fellow said.Non-development expenditure has gone up massively mainly because of the salary hike of public servants, subsidy, big allocation for investment in the capital market and incentives for some export items, he explained.He observed that increased allocations for education, gender equity, social safety net are good signs for the budget. But the allocation in agricultural sector needs to be increased, while the reporting mechanism in defense budget should be transparent, he emphasised. The noted economist, however, said this year the budget was placed in a comfortable macroeconomic environment with robust GDP growth, low inflationary pressure, favourable Balance of Payment (BoP) and augmented foreign exchange reserve, declining interest rate, resilient growth of export earnings, manageable fiscal deficit and low level of global commodity prices.
