Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Friday (June 12) said the proposed budget of 2020-21 FY is not just a ‘traditional’ one as some economists have described it, but rather one for ‘saving lives and livelihoods’.
The minister came up with the remark at a post-budget briefing through a webinar in which Planning Minister MA Mannan and Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque also took part.
Mustafa Kamal stood by his revenue collection target in the proposed budget and called upon rich people to come forward to save the country’s people.
“We expect that the coronavirus won’t be prolonged in the country and we can collect revenue as per our expectation. At first, we have to save people as the country’s people have been affected by coronavirus. Now we have to build infrastructure and create more jobs as many lost their jobs due to the impact of Covid-19,” the minister also said.
Replying to questions raised by experts regarding revenue collection, the finance minister said that full-fledged automation of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) will help to collect tax money.
"We'll first spend for people, later think from where the money comes," he further said.
On Friday, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a think tank, criticized the proposed budget calling it a ‘traditional one’. It said the unprecedented health, economic, humanitarian, and social crises caused by the Coronavirus outbreak have not seen the kind of creativity needed in the budget.
The minister also said that this budget has been proposed emphasizing saving people’s lives from the fallout caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
“We gave priority to the agriculture sector after the health sector in the budget. We want to make the agriculture sector in a new way. We need huge money to feed the nation and create jobs,” the minister said.
This budget is based on the views of local and foreign economists and international lender agencies, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he added.
Mustafa Kamal said, ‘‘We have been able to achieve our target in previous years. So, we hope we can obtain GPD growth this year too. We announced the 49th budget traditionally. But this year's budget is different due to Covid-19. Besides, I had to face various problems before the announcement of the proposed budget not getting proper data.”
Regarding private investment in the country, the minister said, the target has been set at 25 percent private investment would increase because many foreign entrepreneurs were ready to invest in Bangladesh.
"We have set up more than 100 economic zones across the country". Of these, 16 are nearing completion. Coronavirus will shift the investment of multinational companies from different countries, the minister said adding, “Foreign investment is increasing because of the incentives given to them by the government.”
He also said, interest rates on bank loans have been reduced to 9 percent to reduce loan defaulters and to discourage people from investing abroad.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal placed the proposed budget of Tk 568,000 crore in Parliament on Thursday. The revenue collection target has been set at Tk 378,000 crore. Of the amount, NBR has been tasked with realizing a revenue collection target of Tk330,000 crore, The non-NBR revenue collection target is Tk15,000 crore, while the non-tax revenue collection goal is Tk33,000 crore.
