Lotus Kamal on AMA Muhith

The Planning Minister feels the Finance Minister cannot deliver, and has described him as ‘an old man who talks rubbish’. On Monday, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, better known as Lotus Kamal, heaped scorn on Finance Minister AMA Muhith in presence of mediapersons in the Planning Ministry's media centre. "He is an old man and often talks rubbish," said Kamal. The tirade continued. "The finance minister presents a huge budget and nearly goes to sleep while presenting it. He can hardly implement the budget. We could do that if we got a chance." There have been reports of a growing spat between the two ministers over Annual Development Program (ADP) in the 2013-14 budget. The finance ministry appears to have turned down the level of allocation that the Planning Ministry was asking for. "The Finance Minister threatened to take the World Bank to court a few days ago. But we have not seen any legal action,” said Kamal. "How can he take the World Bank to Court? He gets pension from them." Referring to the Public-Private Partnership model called PPP, Kamal said: "He has developed the PPP but I don’t know if it is cow or a goat? Hope the people know what it is! " And the diatribe continued. "He gave one good piece of news that expatriates will be able to vote. But have you seen any expatriate being registered as voters?" Kamal said Muhith had written him a letter on the ADP issue, asking the Planning Minister to be 'realistic'. "I am his colleague. He has no business to lecture me." Then Kamal appeared to cool down a bit. "But it is true he is an old man. Very often he talks rubbish. But we forgive him for his age," said Kamal. Planning ministry officials say that Muhith in his letter to Kamal on Mar 20 had asked him to be 'realistic' about ADP allocations in view of shortfall in revenue collection. The Finance Minister has asked his ‘colleague’ to restrict the ADP size to Tk 550 billion -- Tk 50 billion less than the Planning Ministry's demand. The original ADP size in the current budget (FY14) was more than Tk 650 billion, but it has now become a trend to cut down the original ADP allocations every year, according to a news agency.