The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Monday termed the proposed budget for fiscal 2011-2012 'a document of statistical jugglery' and said it was 'not feasible to implement because of uncertain funding'.
'This budget is not feasible to implement because of uncertain funding. The budget is not pro-poor and not pro-investment as well,' BNP standing committee member MK Anwar told a news conference at the party chairperson's Gulshan office in the capital.
This formal reaction of the BNP to the proposed budget for the next fiscal year came about 20 days after it had been tabled in the parliament.
Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on June 9 proposed the next national budget of Tk 1,63,589 crore with a huge deficit and whacking revenue collection and GDP growth goals.
MK Anwar while reading out a written statement said, 'This is a document of statistical jugglery with wrong information, which does not have any guideline.'
He gave some examples of how the planning and finance ministries had tampered with the statistics of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in the current fiscal year.
The party, however, agreed that the budget was not too big in view of the country's demands.
The BNP leader said the proposed process of whitening of black money should be stopped.
'The budget encourages
taking loans from foreign sources to offset its huge deficit, which will put a pressure on the country's overall economy,' the party observed in the statement.
MK Anwar termed the revenue earning plan of the proposed budget unrealistic. 'The revenue earning target has been set at Tk 1,18,385 crore, posting a 24 per cent rise from the current one. Besides, non-tax revenue earning target has also been increased by 40 per cent from the current one to Tk 22,600 crore.'
'This excess money will be collected from the people either by imposing taxes or in exchange of different government services. The low-income group of the population will be the hardest hit by the process of collecting this excess fund,' Anwar remarked.
He claimed many of the projects proposed in the budget were aimed at making political gains and called on the government to scrap the 'political projects' to reduce the financial pressure on the poor.
The BNP leader slammed the government for including formation of the prime minister's higher education fund and construction of a museum on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the budget as corporate social responsibility projects.
About the projected gross domestic product growth rate, he said it would in no way be 6.7 per cent. He quoted the GDP growth projections made by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to substantiate his prediction. 'The World Bank projected the GDP growth rate at 6.2 per cent while the ADB said it would be 6.3 per cent.'
On the country's poverty scenario, he said, 'About 35 lakh more people have gone below the poverty line in the past two and a half years.'
He also said the rate of inflation would be much higher than that projected in the proposed budget.
The BNP said the proposed budget did not contain any measure for implementing the pledged made by the Awami League in its election manifesto.
'Nothing will be implemented if the government fails to maintain law and order, check the decline of economic indicators, and does not ensure good governance, curbing unabated corruption,' he pronounced.
Anwar came down heavily on the finance minister for his statement on allowing India transit facility. 'Bangladesh will never turn into a Switzerland; it will rather turn into Sikim, if transit is allowed,' he maintained.
'The finance minister could have offered cash incentive or reduce the interest rate [on bank loans given to industries), but the minister was totally silent on measures to save the country's huge industrial sector,' The BNP stalwart said.
Finance minister AMA Muhith has proposed to increase the duty at source on export earnings from 0.4 and 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent and it would have severe adverse impacts on the export-oriented industries, said Anwar.
He termed the reduction of value-added tax on turnovers of small and medium enterprises from 4 per cent to 3 per cent keeping the taxable turnover threshold at Tk 60 lakh 'meaningless'. 'The minimum turnover amount should be increased to Tk 1 crore.'
The government plans to cut the tax at source on income earned from saving certificates from 10 per cent to 5 per cent but has not increased the interest rate on the certificates, Anwar pointed out.
He said the provision that every company would have to pay 0.5 per cent turnover tax, regardless of profit or loss, should be dropped from the budget.
Anwar criticised the government move for collecting tax from the civil servants and said it would make the administration devoid of talented officials.
BNP chairperson's advisers Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Enam Ahmed Chowdhury, Osman Faruk, Sabihuddin Ahmed, and Abdul Awal Mintoo were also present at the conference.
Source : New Age
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