'Have to think big'

(AMA Muhith does not fit the stereotype of a cut-and-dry finance minister. His love for literature shows up in his budget speeches, breaking the monotony of dry statistics such exercises are usually associated with. A student of literature, the finance minister remains young at heart despite being an octogenarian. Days before Muhith creates a record when he presents sixth Budget in a row, bdnews24.com caught up with him at the local Circuit House when the finance minister was visiting his native Sylhet for 'family reasons')

bdnews24.com: How do you feel about presenting your sixth budget in a row -- a record in independent Bangladesh?

AMA Muhith: It is true I will be the first finance minister of independent Bangladesh who has already presented five budgets and will now present a sixth. It is a great feeling. Not the least because the national economy seems to have developed on a solid foundation. We have done a great job. When a government comes back to power a second time, it can maintain the continuity and move decisively to complete all that is unfinished from the previous term. But the danger is that it cannot leave anything for somebody else to complete. We are back in power for a second term and will have to complete all we pledged. People have high expectations and we must perform.

bdnews24.com: Is this sixth budget of yours that you present in a few days time be different from the five before?

AMA Muhith: You are right, it will be fundamentally different. Not only have we complete all that we set out to do in the last term but we also have to undertake many new projects and all these have to be implemented carefully and transparently. Our economy has reached a phase where we have to undertake many new projects. We have to think big to make the economy really take off. This budget will reflect quite a bit of that. We are happy we can maintain the continuity of growth but we realise the challenge we face to keep up the momentum.

We have to two big projects to complete -- the Padma railroad bridge and four-laning the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. The work to four-lane the crucial highway is stuck because of some problems with the Chinese company which is implementing the project. Such problems do happen but we have now sorted all that out and I hope the four-laning of the highway will be finished soon. Besides these two projects, we will take up the Dhaka metro rail project and try setting up a convention centre of international standards near Dhaka. The work on the Metro rail to provide our capital with a mass rapid transit transport system will begin during the next Budget.

bdnews24.com: What are your main challenges in this Budget?

AMA Muhith: Industrialisation is my biggest challenge and our biggest weakness is in the area of job creation. Only by ensuring more investment can we overcome this challenge and tackle this weakness. Thankfully, the hurdles encountered by potential investors have been tackled to some extent. The power situation is much better than before though the problem remains because we have not been able to boost our natural gas output despite much effort. So we have to finalise our policy on use of coal -- sooner the better. We also have to remember that to boost investments, we really need to develop our infrastructure. It is most important that we raise our power output. Since we have a problem increasing our production of natural gas, most of our big power projects will have to coal-fired because we don’t have a choice. If we can't increase our power output, we will have problems after 2017.

bdnews24.com: If we can't increase our power output, we will have problems after 2017. Political stability is an important condition to boost investments. But in Bangladesh, that is not often possible. Can we say that investments will go up in such a situation?

AMA Muhith: It is true we have faced a long spell of political turmoil that deter investors. But we would expect investors to come go ahead with their plans despite turmoil. Thankfully, we now have complete stability and that is impacting on investor sentiments. I hope this stability will remain for the next five years. The BNP is losing its way because it has no ideology. Ziaur Rahman created this party with opportunists like Shah Azizur Rahman and it is getting marginalised. The day is not far off when this party will wither away and its place taken by some other party.

bdnews24.com: We hear there will be a huge allocation for the Padma bridge project in this budget. There has been much uncertainty over this major infrastructure project. What now?

AMA Muhith: Let us be clear -- the Padma bridge is being done with our own resources. A Chinese company will be given the task of constructing the bridge, its central structure. It is all finalised. I know of all the ups-and-downs but now there is no scope for speculations. Work on the Padma bridge will start very soon. And I am definite that the bridge will be completed within the current tenure of our government. It will be finished in four years. There will be a major allocation for this project in this Budget.

bdnews24.com: You have presented eight budgets in all. The former finance minister Saifur Rahman presented 12 budgets in all. How many you want to present?

AMA Muhith: I want to present five more Budgets and complete the whole term of my government. At the request of the Prime Minister, I have decided to continue as Finance Minister and I am keen to fulfil my responsibilities. Pray to the Almighty for my health.

bdnews24.com: So you want to complete the entire second tenure of your government?

AMA Muhith: Why now? I have said that Bangladesh has rejected Khaleda Zia's politics of destruction and brought the Awami League back to power to maintain the continuity of the development process. I want to play my role in it.

bdnews24.com: Do you recall any dreams at this age?

AMA Muhith: I am driven by two dreams -- to complete the Padma bridge and the four-laning of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. I have fulfilled these dreams.

bdnews24.com: Can you give us an idea of the size of 2014-14 budget?

AMA Muhith: The size of the budget is growing, as the economy grows .Revenues are also growing. The 2014-15 budget will be around TK 2.5 trillion.

bdnews24.com: You have said there will no provision in this budget for whitening black money except by paying penalty for undisclosed income. That was your stand before but you gave to pressures from various quarters. Will that happen again?

AMA Muhith: This time, I will not back off. Such measures (for whitening black money) have never yielded positive results. There is no pressure so far but even if that happens, I will stick to my stand this time. Tax dodgers have to pay penalty to regularise their undisclosed income.

bdnews24.com: You have been finance minister for quite a while now. Can we discuss your successes and failures?

AMA Muhith: Let us talk of major successes first. I am pleased with the way our revenues have grown. Five years ago, when I presented the first budget of our government, our revenues stood at TK 530 billion and now they doubled to TK 1.3 trillion in five years. We have taken several measures to further boost our revenues in the 2014-15 budget This is a huge success.

And failure -- surely there is one major area of failure. We have failed to tackle corruption. Many corrupt people just go scot free. This is a major failure. It also upsets me that some musclemen who use terror are not brought to book.

bdnews24.com: Allegations of your party shielding the corrupt and those who take the road of terror abounds?

AMA Muhith: I agree but the corrupt and those who resort to terror should never be encouraged.

bdnews24.com: Thank you for your time.

AMA Muhith: Thank you.