The proposed national budget for fiscal year 2019-20, if passed, will ensure facilities only to the high-income people, according to the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
Addressing a post-budget press conference on Friday, CPD’s Distinguished Fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said that the proposed budget would go in favour of the people benefitting from economic misrule and it is a matter of grave concern.
He said Bangladesh becoming a middle-income country depends on what is being and would be done for the middle-income people. “But the budget lacks better facilities for the middle-income people. There are no clear directions regarding this section.”
Marginalized or lower-income people would not be benefitted by the proposed budget, said the veteran economist at the event held at Lakeshore Hotel in Dhaka’s Gulshan.
The budget also failed to reflect the ruling party’s manifesto unveiled before the last general election held in December 30 last year, he added.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina jointed unveiled the mammoth Tk523,190 crore budget for FY2019-20 in parliament on Thursday.
In the proposed budget, the finance minister sought to create jobs for 30 million people by 2030, increase tax-GDP ratio to 14% from current 10% by next two years, and attain a double digit GDP growth in four years.
CPD, an independent think tank, also urged the government to bring transparency in a number of parts of the proposed budget, including taxes, allocations and expenditures.
It said that emerging challenges in the economic management were largely unaddressed too in the budget.
