The Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) announced an alternative budget of Tk 6.325 trillion for the next fiscal year (FY) 2015-16.
The budgetary outlay is twice the size the government is likely to propose for the year.
And the association of country's economists shows the sources of internal resource mobilisation for this hefty budget without seeking foreign funds.
Former BEA president Dr Abul Barakat, also a professor of the University of Dhaka, unveiled the budget proposals Saturday at the BEA's New Eskaton office, terming it a political-economic manifesto of the association.
This is for the first time the BEA presented such a surrogate budget ahead of the national budget presentation by the government's finance minister.
Dr Barakat urged the government to follow the structure of the proposed budget as they show that the existing system of economy widens the socioeconomic inequalities and disparity in society.
"The common people are confined into the hands of a group of political cliques," he said, stressing the need for mainstreaming the unaccounted-for money.
To recover the huge black money--which he guessed to be around Tk 7 trillion--the economist also urged the government to form a commission.
He also suggested putting a way-out in the budget so that the government could bring the money in the economy.
But he cautioned that care should be taken so that the genuine taxpayers are not hurt and suggested publishing a white paper in this regard.
BEA General Secretary Dr Jamaluddin Ahmed read out the text of 'Budget Proposal of BEA to Build a Bangladesh in the Spirit of the Liberation War' at the press conference which was attended by a good number of members of the association. But none of them spoke.
"Our proposal for the next budget is Tk 6.325 trillion, which is probably double the size of next national budget," said Dr Jamaluddin, also a former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB).
The association proposed revenue target at about Tk 4.875 trillion, leaving a deficit of Tk 1.450 trillion, which is 23 percent of the budget.
Of this deficit, Tk 300 billion will be supplied from the banking sector, Tk 250 billion from the sale of savings instruments, Tk 450 billion from Public-Private Partnership equity and Tk 450 billion from diaspora bonds.
The outlay for annual development programme (ADP) was proposed at Tk 4.098 trillion or 65 per cent of the total budget.
According to BEA, there will be no foreign funding for the budget.
About 57.54 per cent of revenue earning (Tk 2.805 trillion) will come from NBR (National Board of Revenue), 11.08 per cent (Tk 540 million) from non-NBR, and 31 per cent (1.530 trillion) from non-tax sources.
"It's possible to meet the revenue earnings, even without foreign funding, if we can reform the present structure of revenue system," said Dr Barakat in reply to a query about how to generate the income.
He said at least Tk 505 billion can be realized from the organisations or services like foreign national tax, service tax, wealth tax, telecom regulatory commission and energy regulatory combination, which still remained outside the tax net.
According to the association of economists, there are about 50,000 people who are eligible to pay at least Tk 10 million (one crore) in tax, but only 50 people are paying under this slab.
Earning from non-tax revenue, according to Prof Barakat, can also be increased 5.5 times to Tk 1.530 trillion if due attention is given to the sector.
Asked whether it is possible to achieve so ambitious revenue target, Barakat said it's quite possible if there is political commitment.
"Many of the people in the NBR are not fair. We can not expect anything from them," said the economist, adding that there are so many political appointments.
"We have many Union Parishad members who are quite eligible to be members of the cabinet. But could we do it?" asked Dr Barakat.
He also criticised the government for increasing the defence budget. He rather urged the government to increase the budget for health, education and other social sectors.
"In our budget proposal we suggested Tk 640 billion for education and Tk 450 billion for health sector instead of government allocation of Tk 280 billion and 120 billion respectively," he told the reporters.
He also urged the government to allocate khas lands to the poor landless. According to him, there are about 20 million bighas of khas land in the country. Dwelling on the investment situation Mr Barakat said the Board of Investment (BoI) has miserably failed to attract any foreign investment.
The association demanded massive reform of the government investment agency.
mzrbd@yahoo.com
BEA suggests massive surrogate budget for FY \\\'16
FE Report | Published: May 31, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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