Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The national budget for the fiscal 2015-16 will be presented in the Parliament on Thursday, setting an over-sized public investment and ambitious revenue collection target.
Officials working with the budget preparation said that although the government planned to spend more money on infrastructure development, no ‘big bang’ reforms will be there to meet the people’s expectation.
“The next budget will be as usual and no major policy changes will be made to bring structural reforms,” a senior finance ministry official told The New Nation on Saturday, preferring anonymity.
He said: The nation will experience a major increase in public expenditure in the next budget, with higher allocation on transport, power and education sectors.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith earlier said that the size of the upcoming budget would be over Tk 3.0 lakh crore, promising further economic growth.
Muhith will place his ninth budget as Finance Minister in the Parliament describing the next year’s economic policy of the ruling Awami League (AL) government. The government also plans to collect near about Tk 2.0 lakh crore revenues, projecting the GDP growth at 7.2 per cent. It has earlier approved a Tk 97,000 crore development budget for the next fiscal.
“The government intends to increase revenues to meet its huge development spending, said the Finance Ministry official adding, “The government earlier promised higher investment in decrepit roads, railways and ports for improving the country’s investment climate and economic growth.”
He further said that measures would be taken to bring the new sectors under tax net to mop up more revenues. Budgetary measures will also be taken to boost both local and foreign investment
“The Finance Minister will be very lucky this time as the major economic indicators are in good shape,” he said. Inflation remains under control, foreign reserve reaches an all-time high, remittance and export keep on the rise and balance of payment remains in safe zone making him comfortable to present the next budget.
He also said that the falling international prices of petroleum and other commodities also give him much relief to present a balanced budget.
The budget should focus more on infrastructure spending with necessary allocation to the mega development programmes.
“We expect a pro-people, business and investment-friendly budget. Budgetary measures should be taken to create jobs for rural population and widen the social safety-net programmes,” said former finance adviser of the caretaker government Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam.
He added the government might miss the budgetary targets that would be set for the next fiscal due to lack of deep-seated structural problems.
When asked, he said, the budget deficit would be kept within the 5.0 per cent of the GDP if we consider the ground reality of the Bangladesh economy.
