Budget implementation faces many challenges: Muhith
Thursday, 13 August 2009
FE Report
Power shortage, lack of administrative efficiency and uncertainty over the global financial crisis are the three main challenges facing budget implementation, said Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith Wednesday.
Resource mobilisation is not a problem as far as budget implementation is concerned and the government may as well outperform its mobilisation target, he added.
"Energy is a big concern as it hinders public and private investments," he said at the seminar on Delivering on Budget FY2009-10: A Set of Implementation Issues organised by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in the city.
Quality of administrative procedure is important and reform is needed to provide better and efficient services to the people, he said adding, "It takes more than a month's time to get any service from the one-stop service centres."
"Our biggest task is to inspire the administration and the people," he said.
The minister said the public procurement rules (PPR) has been amended but it will be only applicable to small projects.
"It will help the government to take quick decisions."
The progress of the annual development programme (ADP) implementation of the 10 ministries, which are responsible for about 80 per cent ADP work, will be monitored on a monthly basis, he said.
"In December the government will review the budget implementation and it will not be a normal review as there will be a provision for fund reallocation for different ministries and projects," he added.
About the public private partnership programme, he said the act has almost been finalised.
"There are a couple of issues like how to finance the projects and the roles of donors yet to be decided," he added.
The government will finalise poverty reduction strategy paper for three years in accordance with the five-year development programme, Mr Muhith said.
He said Bangladesh Bank will inform the public about the latest position of the stimulus package declared last fiscal.
"The new package will be declared after discussing the issue at the taskforce meeting,' he said.
The recruitment at the National Board of Revenue will start soon to make it a vibrant organisation, he added.
The government is not going to take any hard term loan which will put too much pressure on repayment, Mr Muhith said.
Former adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said law and order situation is hampering the growth prospect.
About revenue earning, he said the government has reduced duty on different products but at the same time increased duty on luxury products.
"It will be difficult to offset the loss incurred due to duty cut with the duty increased on luxury products," he explained.
The government should spell out which sector will get how much under the stimulus package, he said.
CPD chairman Rehman Sobhan said media can play an important role in implementing the budget.
"A group of media people can visit projects on-site and ask the authorities about its implementation and publish or broadcast news," he said.
The media reports will give more fruitful results than that of seminars and roundtable discussions on the issues, he added.
"The people have the right to know whether the tax money is being used or abused," Mr Rahman said.
An award should be introduced for the best report on project implementation and it will be given quarterly.
Finance Secretary Dr Mohammad Tareq said the government is more worried about external development as far as resource mobilisation is concerned.
"We are worried with the declining export growth and there is a possibility that remittance growth may also fall," he said.
The government has received over $1 billion aid commitment for the current fiscal and there will be no crowd out effect because of government borrowings.
CPD fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya in his presentation said implementation of the budget remains contingent upon the overall state of good developmental governance of the country.
"An informed monitoring mechanism endowed with real-time data and introduction of quarterly reporting on the state of the economy to the national parliament will greatly help in developing governance," he said.
Power shortage, lack of administrative efficiency and uncertainty over the global financial crisis are the three main challenges facing budget implementation, said Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith Wednesday.
Resource mobilisation is not a problem as far as budget implementation is concerned and the government may as well outperform its mobilisation target, he added.
"Energy is a big concern as it hinders public and private investments," he said at the seminar on Delivering on Budget FY2009-10: A Set of Implementation Issues organised by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in the city.
Quality of administrative procedure is important and reform is needed to provide better and efficient services to the people, he said adding, "It takes more than a month's time to get any service from the one-stop service centres."
"Our biggest task is to inspire the administration and the people," he said.
The minister said the public procurement rules (PPR) has been amended but it will be only applicable to small projects.
"It will help the government to take quick decisions."
The progress of the annual development programme (ADP) implementation of the 10 ministries, which are responsible for about 80 per cent ADP work, will be monitored on a monthly basis, he said.
"In December the government will review the budget implementation and it will not be a normal review as there will be a provision for fund reallocation for different ministries and projects," he added.
About the public private partnership programme, he said the act has almost been finalised.
"There are a couple of issues like how to finance the projects and the roles of donors yet to be decided," he added.
The government will finalise poverty reduction strategy paper for three years in accordance with the five-year development programme, Mr Muhith said.
He said Bangladesh Bank will inform the public about the latest position of the stimulus package declared last fiscal.
"The new package will be declared after discussing the issue at the taskforce meeting,' he said.
The recruitment at the National Board of Revenue will start soon to make it a vibrant organisation, he added.
The government is not going to take any hard term loan which will put too much pressure on repayment, Mr Muhith said.
Former adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said law and order situation is hampering the growth prospect.
About revenue earning, he said the government has reduced duty on different products but at the same time increased duty on luxury products.
"It will be difficult to offset the loss incurred due to duty cut with the duty increased on luxury products," he explained.
The government should spell out which sector will get how much under the stimulus package, he said.
CPD chairman Rehman Sobhan said media can play an important role in implementing the budget.
"A group of media people can visit projects on-site and ask the authorities about its implementation and publish or broadcast news," he said.
The media reports will give more fruitful results than that of seminars and roundtable discussions on the issues, he added.
"The people have the right to know whether the tax money is being used or abused," Mr Rahman said.
An award should be introduced for the best report on project implementation and it will be given quarterly.
Finance Secretary Dr Mohammad Tareq said the government is more worried about external development as far as resource mobilisation is concerned.
"We are worried with the declining export growth and there is a possibility that remittance growth may also fall," he said.
The government has received over $1 billion aid commitment for the current fiscal and there will be no crowd out effect because of government borrowings.
CPD fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya in his presentation said implementation of the budget remains contingent upon the overall state of good developmental governance of the country.
"An informed monitoring mechanism endowed with real-time data and introduction of quarterly reporting on the state of the economy to the national parliament will greatly help in developing governance," he said.