Clicky
National, Back Page

Budget will promote corporate sector

Economists say


Published : 01 Jun 2023 09:45 PM

Leading Economists and analysts of the country assess that it will be a bit challenging for the government to implement the budget, raising question about how to reach the 7.5 pc GDP growth target.

Eminent analyst and former Governor of Bangladesh Bank, Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed told Bangladesh Post that the budget will create better opportunity for the big industrialists but some measures will cause suffering for the small scale businesses. 

He said the bank borrowing  target, set in the budget for deficit financing, would certainly keep adverse impact on the private sector credit growth. 

"Normally the banks are suffering from various crises, moreover the high target of borrowing, set in the budget, will create further burden for them. If the private sector fail to avail credit support from banks it will also create impact on employment generation", Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed added.  

Terming the budget relatively conservative, compared to the preceding years,Dr Zaidi Sattar, Chairman & chief executive of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh said in most years, the expenditure stands at around 15-15.5% of the GDP, and the revenue also follows suit. 

"The budget could also be considered a very ambitious one, as the number of Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) holders is expected to be increased. Having said that, we still have many areas to work on, concerning the tax situation. 

He opined that "our tax system is still very backdated and we have to make some amendments. The tax rate in our country is already very high. We should try to expand the tax base instead". 

Also, the practice of voluntary tax payment has to be introduced. In many foreign countries, people pay taxes voluntarily. In line with that, we too have to make the tax payment process and the tax rate convenient for the people, so that they come forward to pay taxes spontaneously. 

There have no relevance with the reality in terms of the revenue earning targets set in the proposed budget and steps to attain them, said Dr. FahmidaKhatun, Executive 

Director of Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) a leading economic think tank of the country,  while expressing her instant reaction on the national budget. 

She said the steps suggested in the proposed budget to control the inflation are not sufficient and realistic.

"Commodity prices in the world market is now on the downward trend whereas in our country no steps is taken to control prices of essential commodities", she added.