A waste of money, says Wahiduddin

Eminent economist Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud has said that the decision to provide expensive cars to deputy commissioners (DCs) and Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNOs) is a waste of state money.

He observed that some 80 percent of the rich were evading taxes. A large part of traders do not pay value added tax (VAT). In such a low revenue  income situation, when the salary of the government employees cannot be paid, how will the development expenses be met?

He made the remarks while addressing as chief guest at a shadow parliament debate competition at the Film Development Corporation (FDC) auditorium in the city on Saturday, reports UNB.

Debate for Democracy, a debating organisation, organised the event on the strategy of the next budget in economic security with its Chairman Hasan Ahmed Chowdhury Kiran in the chair.

Debaters from Eden Women's College became the winners defeating the debaters of Barisal University in the Shadow Parliament debate on "Increasing revenue collection should be the main strategy of the next budget to protect the economy".

Wahiduddin Mahmud, also former caretaker government advisor, said that it would not yield good result in revenue collection if actions were not taken against corruption and weaknesses were not removed from the existing tax management.

He said that inequality and injustice must be removed as well from the existing tax management system.

"It must be ensured that the revenue collections are not impeded by the pressure from politicians or influential people," he added.

Wahiduddin Mahmud also observed that the dependence on debt was increasing alarmingly.

He said that it was a matter of great concern that the foreign exchange reserves were decreasing significantly.

He said that there was no reason to believe that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) knew better about Bangladesh's economy.

"The advice of the IMF should be accepted considering the interest of the country. Some people of Bangladesh have written their names among the billionaires in different countries of the world including Dubai and Singapore", he said.

He also noted that it was not clear which country they were citizens of. Bangladesh Bank was not being able to give correct information about how they laundered the money.