Published in New Age on Tuesday, 14 April 2015.
District budget unlikely from next FY
Shakhawat Hossain
The government is likely to stop district budget from the new fiscal year after running it for a couple of years on an experimental basis with the eventual goal of strengthening the local administration.
Finance ministry officials confirmed recently that there would be no more showing of separate allocation for the districts in the next budget.
They said the district budget was set to go off as there is no constitutional obligation to formulate it. Moreover, ruling party parliamentarians are also opposing the concept.
The development would dishearten 82-year old finance minister AMA Muhith who aimed at discentralising the national budget through the much-talked-about district budget to cater to the needs of rural people and boost economic growth.
In two years of piloting, the government picked Tangail as the lone district under the Zilla Budget in the first year of 2013-14. Divisional districts of Chittagong, Syhlet, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Rangpur have been added in the outgoing fiscal year.
Bureaucrats have been opposing the district budget since the concept was announced in 2009-10. Only separate allocation for the districts without a legal framework would not be meaningful within the existing system of the central budget, they said.
But Muhith emphasised that local administration could be empowered through the district budget for the development of the country’s socio-economic condition.
Many ruling party members in parliaments last year in pre-budget discussions opposed the idea of strengthening the local administration.
Rafiqul Islam, chairman of the previous parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of shipping, said district budget would spell ‘disaster’ for the lawmakers.
He pointed out district budget would make the Upazila chairmen more important to the people than the elected lawmakers.
Badiul Alam, chairman of Sujon, a civic group working for good governance, criticised the stand of the members of parliament against district budget saying it was very unfortunate.
He said district budget was in a nascent stage and ineffective in the absence of a legal framework.
Independent think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue organised a dialogue on district budget last month in which speakers wanted that the government should improve the methods of formulating district budget in line with the demands of local people.
They said the district budget was yet to bring any desired impact in development at local level though it was a good tool to ensure development in the districts.
CPD distinguished fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya said the government should strengthen the structure of the local government to mobilise resources from the local government areas.