CPD uses us as raw material: Finance minister

Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said the research institute Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) uses them as raw material.

"This is their business and it’s an easy business. They use our information and data for their programmes," said the finance minister while replying to questions on Monday after an online meeting with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) regarding plans for revenue collection.

Mustafa Kamal said, there is no need to calculate the gross domestic product (GDP). Just a look at this country’s rivers, canals, wetlands and villages is enough to understand the state of Bangladesh.

He said, “CPD does a lot of talking, but we try to prove what we say. Whatever we have said has all come true.”

The finance minister posed a question to the newsmen, “On what basis does CPD talk?”

Then he himself replied, “They base their statements on presumptions.” While giving examples of development, he said they (CPD) do not see the roads and highways of the country.

When asked if it was correct for him to say that BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics) works on the basis of information and data and CPD on presumptions, the finance minister replied, “It is certainly correct. But CPD does its work, we do our work. The entire world believes our calculations are correct.”

While the government says that the GDP growth rate of the just concluded financial year was 5.24 per cent, on Sunday CPD had said that the GDP growth rate had now been reduced to a political number.