NCP’S Nahid says budget ‘overlooks’ banking, power sectors, unemployment issues

He describes the proposed revenue collection target of Tk 6.9 trillion as "completely beyond reality"

The budget proposed by the BNP government lacks initiatives to address the fragility of banking sector, the energy and power sector crisis, and unemployment issues, says National Citizen Party (NCP) Convenor Nahid Islam.

Talking to journalists at the Chattogram Circuit House on Friday in the presence of the party's Chief Coordinator Nasiruddin Patwary, Nahid also described the budget as “ambitious” and feared it would not be possible to implement.

He said, "The fundamental economic reforms we had hoped for through this budget will not be possible.”

Nahid, however, said the budget embodies “some creativity”.

“They [the government] have reduced taxes on some products. They have increased allocations for education, health, and social security. Although these are positive, we feel that this budget will not be implementable."

Giving the banking sector the highest priority, he said: "How can we overcome the delicate situation in the banking sector? Our second concern is the energy and power sectors.

“You’ll not find anything in the budget speech about ‘unequal’ power contracts. Although he talked about capacity charges, he did not talk about overcoming them."

"Third, how will there be employment for the youth? Since there will be a huge deficit in this budget, the government will have to borrow from abroad and also from domestic banks to fill that gap."

If the government borrows so much from domestic banks, private sector credit will decrease, he said.

“In that case, investment will decrease and employment opportunities will shrink."

The opposition chief whip and the Dhaka-11 MP, Nahid said the proposed revenue collection target of Tk 6.90 trillion is "completely beyond reality."

“Such a massive figure is impossible under the country's existing tax and revenue structure.

“Because it has never been possible to collect so much revenue in the history of Bangladesh,” he argued citing the existing administration and revenue structure.

According to him, a little over Tk 3 trillion was collected in revenue in the outgoing budget.

"So, it is not possible to collect double the revenue in one year."

Highlighting the increasing prices of daily essentials and energy tariffs, Nahid said the government did not clarify in the budget plan how it will check corruption.

He alleged the finance minister in his budget speech skipped mentioning measures to bring back the money smuggled out of the country during the Awami League regime and on recovering default loans.

Budget ‘Directionless’

In another development, the NCP called the budget “directionless” as it “failed” to reflect the people's hopes and aspirations and has largely become a “hollow talk and deceptive budget”.

Addressing a press briefing at the party headquarters in Dhaka’s Banglamotor on Friday afternoon, the party's Joint Convenor and Kurigram-2 MP Atiqur Rahman Mujahid said: “The NCP believes this budget will have the biggest deficit in the history of Bangladesh.”

He also highlighted some “positive” aspects in the education, health, and social security sectors, while calling the overall analysis of the budget “not realistic”.

"Considering the current fragile and debt-ridden economy, such a large budget is imaginary and overly ambitious. It is based more on election manifesto than on numerically realistic plans."

According to the NCP, the revenue collection targets an "unrealistic and imaginary expectation."