IUB holds budget discussion

The Department of Economics under the School of Business and Entrepreneurship (SBE) of Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) organised a seminar titled "Budget Talk 2026-27" at the IUB auditorium on Thursday.

Prof Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, former finance advisor to the interim government of Bangladesh and former governor of the Bangladesh Bank, delivered a keynote address, themed "Resource Mobilisation: Prioritisation and Implementation".

Prof Dr Salehuddin Ahmed said, "The political government has the mandate to propose a big budget. To fulfill the promises they have made to the people, they must show they are proposing a big budget. Therefore, an expansionary budget with 3.6% of GDP as deficit is not a bad one."

He also said, "If we look at the challenges of the budget, resource mobilisation is a major one. The target given to the National Board of Revenue(NBR) is quite ambitious - about BDT 700,000 crore. But, given the capacity, tax structure, and their mandate for collecting taxes, it will be very difficult in one year to increase the tax collection."

The keynote speech was followed by a panel discussion featuring Dr. Ijaz Hossain, energy and sustainable development expert and retired Professor of BUET; Dr. Md Fardous Alom, joint secretary in the Ministry of Finance; and Dr. Shamsuddin Ahmad, former senior financial sector specialist with the World Bank.

The discussion, moderated by Dr. Shahriar Kabir, Professor of Economics at IUB, was followed by a question-answer session, during which the panel members responded to several queries from the audience about employment, taxation, revenue, power sector, and so on.