Budget to benefit rich: CPD

Centre for Policy Dialogue said on Friday that the proposed national budget, fiscal measures in particular, for financial year 2019-20 gave a lot of facilities to well-off and high-income groups while it offered very marginal benefits to the general people.

Middle-income and lower-middle-income groups would hardly be benefited from the proposed fiscal measures, the independent think tank said at a post-budget press conference at Hotel Lakeshore in Dhaka.

In an analysis of the proposed budget finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal placed before parliament on Thursday, the think tank lamented that the budget proposed no compensation to farmers for their loss in rice production due to slump in price and no increase in the tax-free income limit for individual taxpayers.

It is not clear what types of measures the government has taken to ensure quality education and health services for people lacking ability to go abroad for availing the facilities, the research organisation said.

It said that budget allocation for agriculture, education and health decreased in terms of share of total expenditure outlay and GDP.

The finance minister, however, proposed an in crease in the minimum limit of net asset for imposing wealth surcharge to Tk 3 crore from Tk 2.25 crore giving benefit to well-off people, it added.

Tax rates for buying apartments have also been reduced for rich people while exporters will get cash incentives, it mentioned.

The enforcement of the VAT law will also put extra pressure on middle-income group, it observed.

‘The budget again will go in favour of people who are the beneficiary of economic misrule and in control of the policy,’ CPD distinguished fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya said.

He also said that the proposed budget was completely inconsistent with the electoral pledges mentioned in the election manifesto of the ruling Awami League.

The manifesto is in favour of the poor and an inclusive and inequality-free society.

Offering the scope of legalising undisclosed money is also against the commitment made in the election manifesto and the spirit of the constitution, Debapriya said.

There should be difference between undisclosed money and illegal money, he said.

Some targets set in the budget, including bringing additional one crore people into income tax net and creating three crore jobs, seem to be promises in the air as the promises have been made without any concrete time-bound plan and strategies to achieve the targets, he said.

Traditionally, some good words remain in the budget and these targets are like those words, he added.

The think tank said that emerging challenges in the economic management largely remained unaddressed in the proposed budget.

The election manifesto of the ruling party was also not reflected in the proposed budget, it said, adding that the structural reform agenda, including setting up a banking reforms commission, hardly gained recognition in the budget speech.

The groups who get unfair benefits from banking sector and capital market do not let the government to bring the reforms, Debupriya said.

The finance minister looked for no innovative strategies as he did not recognise the emerging pressures in the economic management, he said.

He also said that the government’s ongoing approach to achieving high GDP growth constructing infrastructure with public investment under the annual development programme was a pre-historic concept which has failed to establish an inclusive society.

The concept is also inconsistent with the nation’s aspiration to build an inclusive, equal, prosperous and higher-middle-income country, he added.

GDP is growing while inequality is also on the rise, but quality in education and health and rate of private investment are not rising, he said.

‘A society and high GDP growth cannot sustain in the long run if inequality continues to rise in the society,’ he said, adding that social discrimination would increase due to impact of the budget.

CPD also demanded ensuring transparency of the budget, fiscal measures, including imposition of tax and exemption from taxation, and statistics under which budgetary estimations were made.

CPD research director Khondaker Golam Moazzem and senior research fellow Towfiqul Islam Khan, among others, were present at the briefing.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net