The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, on Friday said the country is heading towards destruction due to social, economic and political anarchy here.
“The government has got isolated from the people. They know it very well that they won’t be able to be there in power if a free and fair election is held. That’s why they’re now trying to perpetuate their power by resorting to various tricks,” he told a discussion-cum-iftar programme.
MBA Association of Bangladesh arranged the programme titled ‘Review of 2016-17 Budget and Iftar Mahfil’ at Brac Centre Inn in the city.
The BNP secretary general further said, “A serious condition has created in the country due to economic and socio-political anarchies.”
About the national budget for FY 2016-2017, Fakhrul said the budget was placed by a government which has no public mandate. “Our economists have said people have no relation with the budget as there’s no direction in it about public welfare.”
He also said the budget will help the government cement its power through plundering huge public money.
On 2 June, finance minister AMA Muhith placed a Tk 340,605 crore national budget in parliament for the next fiscal year (FY17).
Fakhrul said the proposed national budget will increase huge per capita tax burden on people. “The revenue target for 2016-2017 fiscal year has been set at Tk 2,42,752 crore. It means the per capita tax is Tk 15,172 which was Tk 11,027 in the outgoing fiscal. So, people will have to bear the additional burden of tax of Tk 4,087.”
He said though the finance minister sat with businessmen and other stakeholders before formulating the budget, he did not consider their suggestions.
Bangladesh Bank ex-governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, Dhaka University’s Economics Department Prof Abu Ahmed, ex-Agrani Bank managing director and economist Syed Abu Naser Bakhtiar Ahmed and BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, among others, addressed the programme held with MBA Association president Syed Alamgir in the chair.
Source: Prothom-Alo
