No past govt served public servants so much: Muhith
Finance minister AMA Muhith on Friday ruled out possibility of formation of a banking commission, during the remaining period of the Awami League government.
“I am not going to form banking commission. The papers we have produced will be handed over to the new government (that will assume office after the next general elections),” he told a post-budget press conference at Osmani Memorial auditorium in the city in the afternoon.
The issue of banking commission came to the fore time and again and the minister himself spoke of it, following repeated scams and default loan crisis in the banking sector.
In his rebuttal of criticism that the budget he placed in parliament on Thursday is an electioneering budget, the finance minister said all the budgets he had authored are election-oriented budget.
“I am an important member of a political party. So, it is natural that the budget will be election-centric budget,” said Muhith, an Awami League member of parliament from Sylhet since 2008.
He placed a record 12th budget, the 10th of Awami League government, in parliament on Thursday, amounting to Tk 464 trillion for the next fiscal year with an economic growth target of 7.8 per cent.
The minister claimed that he has not proposed any new tax in the budget as he pledged earlier.
In reply to a query if the election year would hamper budget implementation, he said. “It seems to me that the record of budget implementation would not be bad in this election year and this is a good news,”
According to BSS, asked whether there is anything for the government servants in the new budget, Muhith said no other governments in the past had looked into the interest of the public servants, the way the Awami League government has done it.
Agriculture minister Begum Matia Chowdhury, planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, information minister Hasanul Haq Inu, the prime minister’s economic affairs adviser Mosihur Rahman and energy adviser Taqfiq E Elahi Chowdhury, state minister for finance and planning Abdul Mannan, Bangladesh Bank governor Fazle Kabir, NBR chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, GED member of the Planning Commission Shamsul Alam, and finance division secretary Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury were present at the press conference.