Executive Director of CPD Dr Fahmida Khatun speaking at a press meet on budget analysis at a city hotel on Friday. — FE photo 
The budgetary amnesty will not work properly rather facilitate further siphoning off money, says the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in strongly worded criticism of the proposed measure.
In its post-budget reaction the policy think-tank also says the national budget has given further benefit to the richer and slashed the benefits for the poor and low- income people.
In its budget analysis presented Friday at press meet in a city hotel, CPD economists said the government's tax benefit for legalizing laundered money is unacceptable in ethical, economical and political terms.
"The money launderers will be allowed to legalise moveable or immoveable property acquired abroad through paying 7.0-to 15-percent tax. On the other hand, people with legal income will pay maximum 25-percent tax or the corporate pay 42-percent corporate tax-this is not justified," said CPD distinguished fellow Prof Mustafizur Rahman.
"Many people and businessmen who usually do not siphon off money will now launder illegally using different ways for this inequitable, unjustified budgetary measure," he added.
It means the money will not be repatriated rather the funds will be laundered abroad in the future, the CPD fellow said.
CPD Research Director Dr Khandker Golam Moazzem said the lower tax rate for repatriating laundered money by the dishonest persons is a "slap on the honest taxpayers".
The government in its national budget offered a one-time opportunity to legalise assets, moveable or immovable, acquired abroad by paying a nominal tax, ranging between 7.0 per cent and 15 per cent. No question will be asked about the source of funds used to acquire assets.
About inequitable budget, Prof Mustafiz said the government reduced the income tax to 25 per cent for the high-income people which will give benefit to the richer.
"As a post-Covid facility, the finance minister has offered the reduced tax benefit to the high-income people. But those people have earned higher during Covid period. However, the income of the poor and middle-income group has been cut due to the coronavirus impact. So, the philosophy of equitable budget is not reflected here," said Prof Mustafiz.
"Some 40 per cent are children in Bangladesh. However, there are no facilities or measures taken in the national budget for the child. It also proved that the budget is not equitable," he added.
CPD Research Director Dr Khandker Golam Moazzem thinks the finance minister has indentified "the disease but failed to give treatment properly".
"The government has properly indentified six challenges for the economy, including the higher inflationary pressure. But the people who will be affected much for the inflation have not been offered adequate facilities to weather the impact," he told the press.
The social safety-net allocations (excluding pension) as percentage of budget (gross domestic product) have been lessened to 12.62 per cent in fiscal year (FY) 2022-23 from 14.90 per cent in the outgoing FY2022, he mentioned.
So, the "treatment for the identified diseases" was not addressed properly in the national budget, Dr Moazzem said.
Executive Director of the CPD Dr Fahmida Khatun said the budget is worse in terms of welcoming the illicit income and capital flight, and provides more support to higher-income group keeping the low-and middle-income groups deprived.
She sees the inflation target set within 5.6 per cent as totally "unrealistic" amid the current national and international scenarios of the prices of different products.
The CPD ED said the finance minister assumed that the volatility of global product prices and on the foreign-exchange market would ease in the next fiscal.
"How does he think it? Is it realistic assumption while IMF, World Bank and other international organisations are forecasting continuation of higher prices of the essential products in the future days too?"
She added: "When the global main supplier, Chinese, is still under the Covid threat and Russia-Ukraine war is continuing, how then the ministering is assuming that the international market price will come down and the inflation will be within limit. Do we have any magic wand?
"Overall, with the current structure and proposed measures, the budget appears to be insufficient in terms of needed measures, incomplete in terms of outlining strategies and inadequate in terms of addressing the present macroeconomic challenges."
Prof Mustafizur Rahman further said they were noticing some inconsistencies in the national budget as the social-safety net for the poor has been reduced, inflation target is unrealistic and expectation of easing the foreign-exchange rate not tenable.
When the country is experiencing higher US dollar rate at Tk91.5, how the minster has calculated his macroeconomic state with the USD rate at Tk86, he wondered.
Asked about the government strategy of "cutting demand through increasing supply" in a bid to tame the inflation, Dr Fahmida said this is not a correct decision of the government.
"When an economy faces recession, it needs to boost the demand of the consumers. Drop in demand is not a correct decision at all. So, if we want to achieve 7.5-percent GDP growth, consumption will have to be increased, not to be reduced," she said.
CPD's Senior Research Fellow Towfiqul Islam Khan said the budget would benefit the rich and dampen the expectation of the low-income people.
The lower allocations in health and education, and some tax measures are not appropriate at this moment when the low-income people are affected much through the Covid impact, he added.
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