Jatiya Party Chairman GM Quader on Thursday said the budget for FY-2022-2023 is ambitious in the context of instability in the world market caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
“Instability has been prevailing in the world market due to the Corona pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. That’s why the prices of various commodities and fuel oil are increasing. In such a reality, the huge budget has to be called an ambitious one,” he said.
Talking to reporters in the tunnel of the Jatiya Sangsad, the Jatiya Party chief also said a deficit of Tk 2.5 lakh crore has been shown in the budget which is above 5 per cent of the GDP.
Stating that 36 per cent of the budget revenue is dependent on domestic loans, he said it will hamper local investment by the businesses. “As a result, the path to create new employment may be shrunk.
Quader, also the deputy opposition leader in parliament, feared that the increase in the amount of foreign debt may lead to a catastrophe like Sri Lanka’s as the government has targeted 14.2 per cent foreign loans to implement the budget.
Mentioning that the Bangladesh Bank has devalued taka against the US dollar, he said the lives of middle and lower-class people of the country may become miserable due to inflation.
GM Quader said there should have been an initiative to buy essential commodities, including rice, pulses, and oil from the world market and sell them to the poor at low prices with subsidies.
Besides, he said the tax collection target has been set at Tk42,000 crore more than last year. “The adverse impacts of extra tax collection will only increase the suffering of the common man.”
Earlier in the day, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal unveiled the Tk 678,064 crore national budget for the financial year 2022-2023 with a special focus on economic recovery from uncertainties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
This is the country’s 51st budget and the 23rd of the Awami League government in five terms.
The proposed expenditure for the new fiscal year is 14.24 per cent higher than the revised budget for the outgoing fiscal year (Tk 5,93,500 crore). That amount of money is equal to 15.23 per cent of the total GDP of Bangladesh.
The size of the budget given by Kamal in the outgoing fiscal year was 12 per cent more than the revised budget in the fiscal year 2020-21 and was equal to 16.4 per cent of GDP.
SOURCE: UNITED NEWS OF BANGLADESH