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Published : 12 Jun 2026, 04:25 PM
Jamaat-e-Islami has torn into the BNP government’s proposed budget, calling it “overly debt-dependent, unimplementable and wide open to looting”.
The party demanded immediate revisions to restructure the fiscal package into a public-welfare, investment-friendly, and employment-oriented framework.
Speaking at a media briefing on Friday, Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar outlined the party’s formal position, warning that a lack of good governance and accountability would increase corruption, waste of resources and misuse of public funds during the implementation of the large spending plan.
Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury placed the Tk 9.38 trillion budget for fiscal year 2026-27 in parliament on Thursday, with a revenue target of Tk 6.95 trillion and an overall deficit of Tk 2.37 trillion, equivalent to 3.5 percent of GDP.
Porwar said the budget leans heavily on bank borrowing and foreign loans, with “no clear explanation” of how the revenue target will be met or where the deficit financing will come from.
"The tax structure and corruption-free administration needed to collect from the sources cited are not mentioned," he added.
He warned that plugging the deficit through bank borrowing would automatically crowd out private investment and drag down employment.
"If the government borrows from banks, the private sector cannot invest -- the impact on private business will follow naturally," he said.
Jamaat identified three “major obstacles” to implementation: rising costs in the power and energy sector, where gas, fuel and electricity prices have been raised multiple times in recent months; runaway inflation; and global and political-economic uncertainty.
These three challenges, the party said, make hitting the revenue target and implementing the budget "extremely difficult”.
Comparing the government's budget with Jamaat's own shadow budget, Porwar said the people of the “new Bangladesh” that emerged after the 2024 July Uprising had expected “a people-friendly, well-planned, forward-looking, and workable budget”.
"The government's announced budget does not reflect the aspirations of the people or a clear message about improving living standards," he said.
"There is no sign of meaningful reform in tax administration, the Anti-Corruption Commission, or an accountable state structure.”
Questioning the 6.5 percent GDP growth target, he said the current investment climate, weak financial management, undue interference in the banking sector, rampant corruption, and discriminatory policies all risk hampering productivity.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international bodies have forecast Bangladesh's growth could fall below 5 percent in the coming fiscal year.
"Setting a 6.5 percent target is extremely ambitious and entirely out of step with reality. Similarly, the 7.5 percent inflation target is not consistent with current conditions," Porwar said.
On the Annual Development Programme (ADP), Porwar said its size had been raised to Tk 3 trillion, but expanding the ADP without ensuring planning, transparency and accountability would only open the door to corruption and waste.
"We strongly protest this," he said.
Jamaat warned that tax hikes on raw materials for infrastructure development and industrial inputs would hurt industrial output.
The party also said VAT increases on petroleum, electricity and gas would pile hardship on ordinary people, and that higher duties on garment industry raw materials could put the country's export sector at risk.
"We strongly condemn this anti-people budget.”
On broader fiscal weakness, Porwar pointed to three vulnerabilities: the National Board of Revenue's (NBR) capacity to collect revenue, where an efficient, transparent, and corruption-free tax administration is still not in place; failure to control inflation and protect ordinary people's purchasing power; and the growing burden of interest on domestic and foreign debt.
Laying out a side-by-side comparison, Porwar said the government's proposed budget stands at Tk 9.38 trillion against Jamaat's shadow budget of Tk 8.39 trillion.
The government's revenue target is Tk 7.01 trillion compared with Jamaat's proposed Tk 6.66 trillion -- meaning the government has set itself a revenue goal roughly Tk 350 billion higher than what Jamaat proposed, which he called "extremely difficult to achieve”.
The government's deficit of Tk 2.36 trillion, at 3.5 percent of GDP, compares with Jamaat's proposed deficit of Tk 1.68 trillion, equivalent to 2.43 percent of GDP.
"The difference between the two budgets is not just numerical -- there are fundamental differences in economic philosophy, policy stance, and implementation strategy," the veteran leader said.
He raised a proposal from Jamaat chief to shift the fiscal year from the current July-June cycle to a January-December calendar year.
Porwar also called for the closure of provisions for black money, and urged the government to take effective steps to rein in what he described as growing chaos and irregularities in the banking sector.
On Islami Bank, he said the process used to change the bank's ownership structure was "unacceptable in any way”, and called for shares that were taken away unjustly to be returned at the price at which they were acquired.
He also condemned the trend of replacing bank chairmen and managing directors with politically preferred appointees.
The secretary general urged people to speak out against what he described as “a looting-based budget”, arguing that it is neither people-friendly nor development-oriented.
