The term 'budget' generally refers to a detailed plan of annual income and expenditure of a government. As the present government is on record saying that it is responsive to the people's hopes and expectations, it is likely to make necessary reforms in the existing budget management system.
The finance minister in his first budget speech in 2009 said that his government would implement 'district budget' for equitable distribution of resources in the country. He announced, quite later that the district budget for Tangail will be formulated from 2013-14 fiscal on a pilot basis. The ruling party had promised to implement it as an election pledge much before. The finance ministry is going to introduce district budget for seven more districts of seven divisions of the country from the next fiscal year, according to official sources.
Many developed and some developing countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, India and the Philippines follow the federal form of government where the provincial and the local governments at the lowest level function under the central administration. Their local governments are equivalent to our districts in terms of geographic jurisdiction.
In these countries, the sources of income of the local government are local tax, transfers and loans given by provincial and central governments. On the other hand, expenditure refers to revenue expenditure (including government offices), expenditure on human development, on social safety net, capital and interest and principal payment etc.
The national budget is formulated in two segments, 'development' and 'non-development'. This is seen to lead to duplication and lack of coordination in resource allocation process, a major impediment in the budget management system.
The people at the grassroots level usually complain that their expectations and aspirations are not adequately reflected in the central budgetary system. Moreover, in the existing budget system, there is no way to exhibit how much money has been allocated for a particular district. So, the government has already initiated necessary measures for formulating district budget, as part of the effort towards bringing reforms in the existing budget management system. The district budget will have allocation of allowances like VGF, VGD and TR. municipality and upazila budgets will also be there.
Although the process of formulation of 'district budget' has already been initiated, there are many important reform issues still need to be addressed. These include lack of mechanism and authority at the district level for compiling the annual budget for municipality, district council, upazila parishad and union parishad. There is no separate code to show the expenditure estimated for district level offices in the central budget, no provision for showing how much money is being spent for a district or upazila under a project taken up at the central level and no code in budget classification system for this purpose.
All the income and expenditure of consolidated fund is a part of central budget. But all the transactions of local government are not the part of consolidated fund. These transactions are not included in the government's budget. However, the grants and loans given to the local government institutions by the central government are included in the government budget. As a result, centrally there is no system to integrate the local government's budget with the central government's. There is no scope for the central administration to set targets for potential districts to be self-sufficient as dependence on the centre for funds and directives is still significant.
Addressing all these issues is very urgent now. All local governments must be empowered to impose tax and formulate their own budget. The government should provide funds if any district falls short of money.
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shahana_bilkis@yahoo.com
Problems in preparing district budget
Shahana Bilkis | Published: February 15, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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