Published in Dhaka Tribune on Monday 1 June 2020
Economists: Upcoming budget should ensure people’s livelihoods
The next budget should be a health-focused budget’
Economists and experts said the upcoming national budget should focus on survival of livelihoods through strengthening health, medical and social security sectors.
They expressed their views about the upcoming national budget for fiscal year 2021 at a pre-budget discussion webinar organized by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB) on May 29, said a press release issued on Monday.
Dr Atiur Rahman, former governor of Bangladesh Bank, Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, former senior secretary and chairman of National Board of Revenue (NBR), Prof Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Prof Muhammad Shahadat Hossain Siddiquee from the Department of Economics of University of Dhaka, Ranjan Kumar Bhowmic, NBR member (tax survey & inspection), NBR and AKM Kuamruzzaman, SEVP and head of operation at LankaBangla Finance Ltd, joined the webinar as discussants.
ICMAB President Md Jasim Uddin Akond said that it was ICMAB’s moral duty to give proper suggestions to the government in various budget issues.
Md Mamunur Rashid, vice president of ICMAB, presented a 13-point proposal paper for the upcoming budget on behalf of the institute.
The proposals included adding cost statement accompanied by quantitative analysis statement by CMA professionals with company returns, increasing the minimum range of tax free income from Tk2.50 lakh to at least Tk4 lakh considering the Covid-19 situation; strengthening food, agriculture and medical sector, special incentives for garments and transport system, development of share market and industry sector, and other issues.
Dr Atiur Rahman evaluated the audit process as the foremost task for ensuring the quality of expenditure in every sector.
Considering the present worldwide crisis and future, he underlined on the health and medical sector to be more structured and capable than ever.
He said that the next budget should be a health-focused budget.
“This is our survival budget. Economic development will be nothing if we can’t stay alive,” he warned.
He also stressed the need for giving importance on social protection in the upcoming budget and thus creating a proper database to ease the process.
Dr Atiur also hoped of recovering the economic losses in the near future through surviving this year.
He opined that the Bangladesh Bank could play a vital role in this process through credit guaranty schemes.
Former NBR chairman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan suggested cutting down unnecessary costs in various sectors as much as possible.
He also stressed the need for strengthening the health sector and spending more for social security.
Distinguished Fellow of CPD Prof Mustafizur Rahman said that the next budget should be different than previous editions. “It must be calculated based on health, humanitarian and economic crisis.”
Ranjan Kumar Bhowmic highlighted a different approach on the issue of tax payment.
“We can talk about increasing the tax threshold and rates. India took a different approach for the marginal tax payers, not by increasing the range but reducing the rate to 5% from 10%. We can think about this kind of approach for the marginal tax payers,” he observed.