Two thirds of the business establishments have not received the stimulus package declared by the government. This was revealed in a study conducted by the research institute South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (SANEM).
The SANEM study was based on the views of senior officials 303 companies. Their views were taken over telephone in July.
MCCI president Nihad Kabir said that the declaration of a stimulus package had been a relief for the businesspersons, but there was no relief in its implementation.
According to the study, representatives of 102 companies said that their firms had received the government’s stimulus package. Among the respondents, 34 percent said that they have received the stimulus funds. And 55 percent said that had not received any money at all. And 11 percent were not aware of the stimulus provision. Among those who had received the stimulus package, 87 percent said that they had benefitted from it.
The results of the survey were released on Saturday at a webinar organised for the purpose.
Present at the webinar were commerce minister Tipu Munshi, the prime minister’s economics affairs adviser Mashiur Rahman and business leaders of the country. SANEM’s executive director Selim Raihan presented the survey results.
According to the study, 88 percent of the respondents felt that corruption was the main challenge to business during the coronavirus pandemic. Problems relating at the port and customs were highlighted by 71 percent of the respondents. And 70 percent pointed to weaknesses o coronavirus management.
The research said that the confidence lost by the businesspersons in April-June this year has somewhat recovered in July-September.
Commerce minister Tipu Munshi called for further research on why Chinese investment was going more to India and Indonesia and what sort of facilities were these countries offering. He said, “I don’t know when we can emerge from corruption, but we must.”
The prime minister’s economic affairs adviser Mashiur Rahman said there should be a study in how much money the government is losing my providing businessmen with tax and cash facilities, and also what value addition has there been in the business sectors after receiving the facilities.
Managing director of Apex Footwear Limited, Syed Nasim Manzur said that all sorts of forms had to be filled up to avail the government’s stimulus package. All sorts of documents had to be submitted. This created delays.
President of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) Nihad Kabir criticised the stimulus package declared by the government. She said that the declaration of a stimulus package had been a relief for the businesspersons, but there was no relief in its implementation.
Former president of the Dhaka chamber Abul Kasem Khan said that the most alarming issue in the SANEM report was corruption. This was simply unwarranted during the coronavirus pandemic, he said.