Proposed budget leaves many questions unanswered

Questions have arisen over the FY2021-22 budget presented in parliament on Thursday by finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, as to whether it will be functional in tackling the second wave of coronavirus. After all, there is a gap between presentation of the budget and its implementation. In other words, the figures presented regarding revenue, are not achieved in actuality. Then again, the allocations made in certain sectors are not fully utilised by the end of the year.

Though a budget of nearly Tk 6.04 trillion (Tk 6 lakh 3 thousand 681 crore) was announced, the revenue target is Tk 3.89 trillion (Tk 3,89,000 crore). The total subsidy is nearly Tk 2.15 trillion (Tk 2,14,681 crore). Past experience says this subsidy will increase by the year end.

It had been hoped that this time the finance minister’s budget would have guidelines to tackle the prevailing crisis. Unfortunately, as always, the finance minister came up with a conventional budget this time too. He gave priority to growth rather than the people’s economic crisis.

In his budget speech, the finance minister talked about bringing a balance between live and livelihood. He spoke of lowering corporate taxes for the business community and also about certain facilities for local industry. Such incentives will certainly help in an expansion of business and industry.

Allocation for the social safety net programmes has increased too. However, the budget makes no mention of those who have lost their means of income and have been pitched anew into poverty by the outbreak of coronavirus. As a result, a large chunk of the population remains outside of the new budget. The finance minister has spoken about technical training so that they can get jobs inside the country as well as overseas. He has spoken about agricultural development, but the allocation for this sector is inadequate.

Similarly, the budget contains no guidelines for tacking the challenges faced by education, though allocations for the sector have increased somewhat. The proposal to impose a 15 per cent tax on private educational institutions will not bode well for education. Education is one of the sectors most harmed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The finance minister has given a relatively higher allocation to the health sector. However, there is no guarantee that this allocation will be properly utilised. The current fiscal also had a higher budgetary allocation for the health sector, but this could not be used due to corruption and irregularities of the concerned ministry’s officials. No one was held accountable for this.

The finance minister has spoken about bringing 100 million (10 crore) people under the vaccination programme, but it will take quite a few years to achieve this if 2.5 million (25 lakh) people are vaccinated per month. And within this span of time, a few million more people will be eligible for the vaccine.

Bangladesh has made strides in economic development over the past 50 years, but economic disparity has increased too. The finance minister’s budget speech made no mention of reducing this disparity. In fact, there are all indications of further catering to those already in positions of advantage. The finance minister seems to be clinging on to the outmoded ‘trickle down’ theory.