Staff Reporter :Leading economists on Monday suggested that the government should formulate the next budget taking into consideration the prevailing economic, administrative and political realities of the country.They said that implementation of the budget would face serious challenge if these factors are not reflected properly.”The government should fix the next year’s budgetary priorities and expenditures considering economic, administrative and political realities of the country,” former Finance Adviser Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam told The New Nation on Monday.If these key issues are not addressed, implementation of the next budget would be challenging, he added. Quoting media reports, Mirza Aziz said that the size of the next budget would be Tk 3,40,006 crore, envisaging a total revenue earning target of Tk 2,42,752 crore. Some Tk 110,264 crore would be earmarked for development spending. “It indicates that the government is likely to place another big budget setting an ambitious revenue collection target and development expenditure. I do not see anything wrong with an ambitious budget. But the question is that whether the government has the administrative efficiency to implement such a mega budget,” he added. He said that when poor budget implementation capacity of the agencies concerned remained a key concern, the government should enhance their implementation capacity first before placing another mega budget.The former finance adviser, however, said that the government should increase investment in sectors like infrastructure, education and human resources development, energy, health and social safety-net.”It should also ensure timely implementation of the mega projects and also their quality under the annual development programme,” he noted.Mirza Aziz, a leading economist of the country, also said that the government should take necessary steps in spending cuts in its non-development budget and measures on widening tax net.When asked, he said that the government should set its economic priorities, avoiding largescale public expenditure in unnecessary projects under political consideration in the next budget.”The next budget should be focused more on realities rather than political rhetoric. It should come up with necessary expenditure in the productive sectors to spur economic growth and job creation, former Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr Salehudin Ahmed told The New Nation yesterday.He said that adequate budgetary allocation should go for improvements in infrastructure, education, training, export diversification and scientific research.The former BB Governor observed that the economy of Bangladesh remained stagnant due to lack of necessary investment. “So, pragmatic budgetary measures are needed to boost investment in both public and private sectors,” he noted.”The upcoming national budget should give trust on revival of economy, overcome challenges remained at the economic fronts, particularly resolving the energy crisis and infrastructure deficit,” World Bank’s lead economist Dr Zahid Hussain, told The New Nation yesterday. Besides, priorities in the upcoming budget should be fixed on to reduce fiscal deficit, enhance revenue collection and welfare of the people. “The budget will also focus on introduction of reforms for improving governance, capacity building in projects implementation and boosting private sector investment,” he added.
