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Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday said the national budget for fiscal year of 2024-25 was given keeping the current global situation in mind as the government wants to move ahead in a conservative way and fulfil the fundamental rights of people.
“We have to proceed with the plan, keeping the world situation in mind… We want to move ahead in a conservative way, and fulfil the fundamental rights of people,” she said while addressing a discussion organised on the occasion of the historic Six-Point Day, reports BSS.
The ruling Awami League (AL) organised the event at its office in Dhaka’s Tejgaon area.
Referring to different people’s observations on why the growth percentage is low in the budget, the premier said her government wants to move forward in a conservative way from now on so the countrymen do not feel any suffering.
She said, “Actually, we want to meet the necessity of people. And we have formulated the budget keeping it in our mind.”
Sheikh Hasina, also the AL president, said the last budget of the BNP government was just Tk 62,000 crore, while the then caretaker government placed a budget of Tk 68,000 crore.
“But, we have unveiled Tk 7,97,000 crore national budget this time, and in this budget, few fundamental rights of people such as education, health, agriculture, local industries, social safety net, have been given priority,” she said.
Measures have also been taken to make people’s lives developed, she added.
The prime minister also supported the budgetary provision for legalising undisclosed wealth, saying that it should be brought under the legal network first.
“The money should be allowed to come to the appropriate place [the banking channel] first with payment of a nominal amount of money [tax] and then they will have to pay tax regularly… If you go to catch fish, you need to provide feed,” she said.
Speaking on the scope for whitening undisclosed wealth, the prime minister said many raised questions regarding undisclosed wealth and argued that it would discourage legal taxpayers.
She said that it is not right; rather the fact is that the prices of everything went up and the owner of one katha land is a millionaire. But none sell land at the government rate and sell it at higher prices. So, they keep the surplus money received from the sale of land outside the banking network.
Talking about the worldwide high inflation, the prime minister said that people with limited income are suffering due to inflation. “But we have introduced family cards for the limited-income people so that they can purchase several essential commodities like rice, pulse and edible oil at fair prices.
"We are providing food to those who are extremely poor,” she said.
Besides, the government has been providing financial assistance to the people under some 150 social safety programmes, providing free textbooks to school students, and providing people with some 30 types of free medicines from community clinics.
“The prices of commodities usually go high during every monsoon season. Keeping it in mind, we will start the sale of commodities through family cards,” said the prime minister.
“Now the biggest challenge is to control inflation, particularly food prices,” she said, adding that it is needed to enhance food production and supply.
About the budget deficit, the prime minister said a 4.6 per cent deficit has been kept in the budget this time. “The budget deficit in many countries, even the developed ones, is higher than ours.”
She reiterated her call not to leave even a single land uncultivated in order to boost food production in the country amid the current global situation.
