The proposed budget for the next fiscal is impossible to implement, a former caretaker government’s finance advisor AB Mirza Azizul Islam has said.
“The budget shows an overall lack of practicality,” he told bdnews24.com in his immediate reaction.
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Finance Minister AMA Muhith presented a Tk 2.5 trillion budget, setting the growth target at 7.3 percent.
The proposed budget projects a deficit of Tk 675.52 billion, five percent of the GDP and more than one-fourth the total budgetary outlay.
Muhith said Tk 242.75 billion of the deficit would come from donor funds, while the government plans to borrow Tk 312.21 billion from banks, and the rest would come from other internal sources, including the sale of savings certificates.
Islam said, “Achieving a 7.3 percent growth target is impossible. I can guarantee that it will be missed.”
He said two key finance sources — tax revenue and foreign aid — would face deficits.
For the first time, the government has targeted higher revenue from direct income taxes than from value-added taxes.
The former advisor thinks the annual development programme (ADP) would also miss the mark.
“The ADP for the current fiscal will not be fully implemented,” Islam said. “I believe Tk 540 billion will be spent in the sector.”
He wondered whether it was possible to achieve administrative competence within a year needed to spend Tk 800 billion.
“All in all, the budget is impractical,” he said.
Source: Bd news24
