The government needs to strengthen its institutional capacity and bring in necessary policy reforms to implement the national budget for FY2016-17. The scopes of investment from private sector needs to be encouraged and facilitated to source envisioned growth in the economy.
These views were shared at CPD media briefing on analysis of the proposed National Budget FY2016-17 at La Vita Hall, Lake Shore Hotel, Dhaka on Friday, 3 June 2016. Following the presentation of the proposed budget by the Hon’ble Finance Minister at the National Parliament on the day before, the analysis was prepared overnight as part of CPD’s flagship programme Independent Review of Bangladesh Economy (IRBD).
While presenting the analysis CPD Distinguished Fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, observed that budget FY2017 will face implementation challenges if the inability to mobilise the targeted domestic resources and failure to use foreign aid continues like previous years. An additional Tk. 80,000 crore (approx.) private investment will be required in FY2017, he observed. The increased allocation in education, gender, social safety net etc. are good sign for the budget. On the other hand, the allocations for agricultural sector needs to be increased.
Dr Bhattacharya also said that the size of the budget does not trigger any concern but the financing. This budget is highly dependent on internal sources and all the major parameters of fiscal framework will need to register higher growth rate to attain the targets, he added. In this connection, he also expressed concern regarding attaining the revenue target of BDT 1.76 trillion set by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) which is 30 per cent higher than the FY2016.
Responding to a question from journalists, CPD Executive Director Professor Mustafizur Rahman said that the increased public salary and allowances played significant role behind the economic growth for the FY2016. The government should focus on industrial and agricultural sectors for the next fiscal year for the growth to be sustained, he suggested.
The event ended with a Q&A session with the journalists.