Health, agriculture among four sectors should get top priority in FY21 budget: CPD

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has suggested that the government should give more importance to four sectors -- health, agriculture, social safety net and employment -- in the national budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 (FY21).

CPD Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun made the recommendation during a virtual press briefing on the “State of the Bangladesh Economy in FY2019-20 and Budget Challenges” on Sunday.

The government needs to increase allocations for health and social security to deal post-coronavirus crisis, she said. And in order to keep the economy afloat, Dr Fahmida said, more importance should be given to agriculture and employment.

Besides increasing the tax net, money laundering should be prevented and arrangements should be made to bring back the money already laundered, she said, recommending implementation of the reform programme in this regard.

Dr Fahmida opined that it is important to change the institutional structure for revenue collection and project implementation.

Spending in the productive sector needs to be increased and the FY21 budget should have guidelines for the next few years.

Otherwise, it will not be possible to implement the post-pandemic economic recovery plan, she added.

sr/at