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Stability a must for economic development: Mannan


Published : 18 May 2022 08:51 PM

"Stability and continuity are essential for economic development. We have an eye on marginalized people. We can't control the market because of the practice of market economy", said Planning Minister MA Mannan on Wednesday

He said they are working to reduce the cruelty of the market economy as much as possible by accepting its reality.

He was addressing a round table discussion on national budget 2022-23 organized by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB) at the ICMAB Auditorium, Nilkhet in the capital.

Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury was present as special guest at the program while Dr. Zahid Bakht, Chairman, Agrani Bank Ltd and Prof. Mustafizur Rahman Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) were present as Guest of honor.

ICMAB President Md. Mamunur Rashid FCMA presided over the program.  Seminar and Conference Committee chairman AKM Delwer Hussain FCMA delivered a welcome speech while Abu Sayed Md. Shaykhul Islam FCMA  Council member and Past President of ICMAB moderated the session and Md. Munirul Islam FCMA offered vote of thanks.  AKM Kamruzzaman FCMA, Secretary of ICMAB presented the Key-note paper on the National Budget 2022-23.

While addressing, Planning Minister also said the present government is very much sincere in handling the on-going economic issues. "Economics is a very important issue and you can't panic about it," he said.

Speakers at the event highlighted the do's and don'ts of the budget for the coming financial year considering the current global situation.

Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury said the budget is not a sheet of income and expenditure. At present, there is more transparency in budget formulation than ever before. 

The national budget is only a segment of public financial management and it is one-fourth of the total public financial management issues.

He also mentioned that money is not unlimited. The government has money limits. An average of 30 percent of our GDP is invested. Of this, 24 percent comes from the private sector, and the remaining 8 percent is government investment.

In order to boost FDI, the speakers opined to lower the corporate tax in line with competing countries. 

They also demanded consistent tax policy  to bring the private investors under confidence. It is also necessary to restructure tax rates of the individual tax payers to give a relief to the low income group. Considering the on-going inflation scenario, the government should find out the ways to keep the mid-income group in a comfort zone.

 The upcoming budget should also give due importance on the parliament election to be held in next year. Income generating development projects should completed as early as possible avoiding time overrun and cost overrun. 

They suggested to defer the development projects, which will not generate any income for the government in near future. The budget for 2022-23 will be very crucial or balancing between revenue earning targets of the government and hard reality of increasing trend of inflation.