Carrot and stick policy
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
M. M. Chowdhury (Mithu) from USA
BANGLADESH needs a policy with carrot and stick which will help us unite for a greater benefit for Bangladesh and its future generation. The size of its underground economy is, according to a rough reckoning, more than 30% of its overall economy. Government has no trace of that money in the underground economy: how it was earned, and tax was not collected from its process of money generation. The current anti-corruption drive in Bangladesh is meant to clean it but we may not able to clean it cent per cent. So we need institutional changes which the caretaker government (CG) is working since they took power.
We believe that this noble effort is appreciable but we do not want to sweep too much so that the floor does not come out. And that is exactly what happened in Bangladesh -- all the syndicates or underground business groups have slowed down or stopped their export/import or other economic activities, creating a vacuum. This is causing further economical down-turn and general people are paying the high prices for the essential items, in addition to increasing the burden of high prices of commodities in the international market, now coupled with dollar decline.
So we believe that we need a policy where those who are involved in the underworld economy can come in clean while paying back to the Bangladesh government for their illegal money or unpaid tax and keep a system so they never can think about making illegal money in the country. We have submitted a reconciliation plan for Bangladesh that has been submitted to the CG in July 2007 and we believe that we can take good stuff from that proposal and modify the same, as where and when necessary, to move the country forward. We were also told that the CG is working with part of this proposal but we are worried that any delay of implementation of this reconciliation proposal will hamper Bangladesh if we can not reconcile all our divisions and not work together for a bigger picture relating to economy for creating more jobs and accelerating the pace of development activities in Bangladesh.
We were told that public are losing hope about the overall performance of the economy and foreign investments, and sky-rocketing prices of essential items in Bangladesh.
We think that we should talk about this plan or find a better plan which will unite the country by keeping the current anti-corruption drive in place.
We will urge the CG to provide carrot and stick at the same time and reconcile with people who want to avoid jail term for their alleged crimes.
Any better plan should be appreciated if we can find common ground to unite all and help Bangladesh to move forward.
(The writer is a Chemical Engineer and can be reached at e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected])
BANGLADESH needs a policy with carrot and stick which will help us unite for a greater benefit for Bangladesh and its future generation. The size of its underground economy is, according to a rough reckoning, more than 30% of its overall economy. Government has no trace of that money in the underground economy: how it was earned, and tax was not collected from its process of money generation. The current anti-corruption drive in Bangladesh is meant to clean it but we may not able to clean it cent per cent. So we need institutional changes which the caretaker government (CG) is working since they took power.
We believe that this noble effort is appreciable but we do not want to sweep too much so that the floor does not come out. And that is exactly what happened in Bangladesh -- all the syndicates or underground business groups have slowed down or stopped their export/import or other economic activities, creating a vacuum. This is causing further economical down-turn and general people are paying the high prices for the essential items, in addition to increasing the burden of high prices of commodities in the international market, now coupled with dollar decline.
So we believe that we need a policy where those who are involved in the underworld economy can come in clean while paying back to the Bangladesh government for their illegal money or unpaid tax and keep a system so they never can think about making illegal money in the country. We have submitted a reconciliation plan for Bangladesh that has been submitted to the CG in July 2007 and we believe that we can take good stuff from that proposal and modify the same, as where and when necessary, to move the country forward. We were also told that the CG is working with part of this proposal but we are worried that any delay of implementation of this reconciliation proposal will hamper Bangladesh if we can not reconcile all our divisions and not work together for a bigger picture relating to economy for creating more jobs and accelerating the pace of development activities in Bangladesh.
We were told that public are losing hope about the overall performance of the economy and foreign investments, and sky-rocketing prices of essential items in Bangladesh.
We think that we should talk about this plan or find a better plan which will unite the country by keeping the current anti-corruption drive in place.
We will urge the CG to provide carrot and stick at the same time and reconcile with people who want to avoid jail term for their alleged crimes.
Any better plan should be appreciated if we can find common ground to unite all and help Bangladesh to move forward.
(The writer is a Chemical Engineer and can be reached at e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected])