It won’t be very ambitious, he says
Mentioning that the next national budget would not be very ambitious, Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Thursday said he feels discomfort prior to presenting the next budget what he did not do ever.
“I had a hope we’ll be able to deliver a good budget…the way things were progressing …the anarchy created in the last four months was a disaster in the last four years,” he said.
The Finance Minister was addressing the 34th consultative committee meeting of the Board of Revenue (NBR) on the budget for fiscal year 2013-14 held at a city hotel.
Industries Minister Dilip Barua spoke as a special guest at the meeting jointly organised by the NBR and the FBCCI, while NBR Chairman Md Ghulam Hossain conducted the meeting. FBCCI president Kazi Akramuddin Ahmed delivered the address of welcome.
Muhith said the next budget would be tough for him and efforts are already there to make this budget as a nice one as it would the last budget of the present AL-led Grand Alliance government.
He said the upcoming budget would not be very ambitious and there might be some directives as well as no such new initiatives.
Observing that it is very difficult to remove black money from the country, the Finance Minister said the existing provision for whitening undisclosed money giving fine is internationally acclaimed as black money also exists in the US economy.
Quoting some studies and surveys, he said the existence of black money in Bangladesh represents 40 to 80 percent of economy although no body knows what is the fact?
Mentioning that a big amount of black money is engaged in the real estate sector, he said the government is trying to bring this money into the mainstream economy. “I wouldn’t be able to see in my life there’s no black money in the country.”
About the concerns of some business leaders over Padma Bridge project, the Finance Minister said the next budget would surely witness an increase of at least Tk 5,000 crore revenue earnings and that would be allocated against the Padma project so that there is no change in allocations for other sectors.
Mentioning that the corporate tax reform initiative of the government is in a bad shape, he said the government could not do much to this end.
“The corporate tax structure needs an overhaul and it won’t be wise to interfere in it in the last year of the present government,” he added.
Referring to the demands of lowering the tax and VAT rates by various business leaders, he said the tax-GDP ratio in Bangladesh is the lowest in this region and also perhaps the lowest in the world.
“When we’ve assumed office this time, the tax-GDP ratio was less than 10 percent of GDP, but, now it reaches 13.4 percent,” he added.
The Finance Minister said that although the government is trying hard to widen the tax net, the progress is not so strong to this end.
Responding to criticisms from an FBCCI representative on the new VAT Act, Muhith said the process for enactment of the new VAT law started in 2010 and the law had been finalised after holding discussions with all the stakeholders. “The new VAT Act is such a law which will keep us away from forgery.”
About the high bank interest rates, the Finance Minister said many of the businessmen are also involved in the banking sector raising a question why they do not think about the lending rates and its margin. He also observed that the interest rate regime of the country’s banking sector is yet to get a full shape.
Muhith, however, said the interest rate has a relationship with the rate of inflation, and if the inflations rate comes down the interest rates are also likely to come down.
About the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR), Muhith noted that the ADR initiative is yet to get such strength and efforts would be there to further strengthen it.
Source: UNB Connect
