BNP senior leader Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury on Thursday said the proposed national budget for fiscal year 2019-20 will facilitate only a section of people instead of fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the country’s people.
In an instant reaction to the new budget, he also said as the government has kept Tk 145,380 crore deficit in the proposed budget, it will have a negative impact on people’s life as the money will ultimately be realised from them.
Khosru said the current ‘unelected’ government and Parliament have no moral right to present any budget for the nation. “The budget they (govt) presented was formulated only to give a section of people all the facilities. The budget management is now confined to a quarter.”
The BNP leader said people’s hopes and aspirations were not reflected in the last general election. “The desires of the people of Bangladesh will also not be fulfilled through the new budget.”
Khosru, also a former commerce minister, feared that the government will fill up the huge amount of budget deficit by collecting money from people through raising the tariffs of the utility services.
He said the country’s macro economy which was on good track over the last 20 years is now getting affected for lack of good governance, investment and some other reasons. “Our economy is deviating from its correct course.”
The BNP also alleged that Bangladesh’s economy has now turned into ‘loan-dependent’ one. “It’s very dangerous that we’re going to be caught in a dead trap. We’ll face serious hurdle to repay the loan in the days to come.”
Earlier in the day, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal placed a Tk 523,190 crore national budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year with the target of 8.2 percent GDP growth.
Khosru said the 8.2 percent GDP growth is unrealistic as different organisations are raising questions about the country’s GDP growth. “A government which lacks accountability can only set such a GDP growth target.”
He also asked the reasons behind the bad condition of the capital markets, rise in unemployment rate and lack of investment if the country’s GDP growth is really high. “How can GDP growth accelerate without investment amid liquidity crisis faced by the banks?”
Khosru gave the reaction to the budget at his Banani office.
However, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam is scheduled to come with their party’s formal reaction to the budget at a press conference at its chairperson’s Gulshan office at 4pm on Friday.
