No new policy initiative for next fiscal: Muhith

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FE Report
The government will include no new policy initiative in the next budget to be unveiled on June 10, rather pursue those taken under the budget of the current fiscal year, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith told reporters at his ministry Tuesday.
"The main thrust of the next budget will be on implementing the initiatives included in the current budget," he said at a press briefing.
The Finance Ministry will bring all 12 remaining ministries under the medium-term budgetary framework (MTBF) for a period of five years from the next fiscal, Mr Muhith said.
It will offer the government two advantages - to draw up a comprehensive development plan for the next five years and ensure proper utilisation of resources, he added.
The main objective of the MTBF is to help the ministries adopt more realistic attitudes, Mr Muhith said.
At present 32 ministries are under the framework and from the next fiscal the remaining 12 ministries will join it.
In addition, the President's Office, the Prime Minister's Office and the Parliament will also be brought under the MTBF, he said.
Power and energy will get the maximum priority in the next budget and the targets for the two sectors in 2010-11 will be time-bound, Mr Muhtih said.
He said most of the ministries' capacity of implementing projects is poor and it should be improved.
"The main problem is implementation and the government will put focus on the issue," he added.
"Implementation and monitoring of foreign-aided projects are much better than the government-managed and a mechanism needs to be developed to improve the situation," the minister said.
He quoted officials of the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED) as saying that their supervising capacity was poor.
The IMED is responsible for supervising and monitoring all the public projects undertaken by the government.
However, a proposal is there to reduce the number of projects to improve the supervision quality and the government will think about it, Mr Muhith said.
The minister admitted that there were some failures in the current budget, but he did not see any reason to be unhappy. "There are some failures, but the overall situation is satisfactory."
The finance ministry expected the public-private partnership (PPP) framework to be in place by October last but it did not happen, he said.
The power sector development is not up to the expectation, but the government "will try to make the situation better," he added.
Performance in collection of income tax and value added tax (VAT) is very good in the current fiscal and the ministry will keep the pace of revenue collection intact.
On the macroeconomic front, Mr Muhith said, inflation is under control and exports have started to pick up since February.
Exports saw a negative growth of just three per cent in February, but it was more intense earlier, when the negative growth stood at seven to eight per cent, Mr Muhith said.
"Some organisations always raise a hue and cry to draw the attention of the government to get some help," he lamented.
The government has given the maximum priority to stabilising prices of rice, pulse, edible oil and wheat, he added.
"There is an inflationary pressure due to the price rise in the international market but the situation is still under control," he said.
The minister said the chairmen of parliamentary standing committees in a meeting recently asked the finance ministry to attach maximum importance to the power sector.
"We had a very fruitful discussion and they suggested enhancement of the implementation capacity and drawing up a proper land use plan," he said.
"High-rise buildings should be built also in rural areas to ensure maximum use of minimum land," he added.
The lawmakers also pressed for undertaking PPP projects and easing traffic jams in city areas, Mr Muhith said.
Development of the railway and communication sectors also came up for discussion and the minister assured them of looking into all those issues.