Muhith holds Khaleda responsible for current downtrend in economy

Investment shies away due to security conditions as killings, bomb attacks on innocent people have taken place this year, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said Wednesday.
The 'foolish' policy of killing people has caused serious setback to economic development of Bangladesh, he said.
"Hartal is something you can tolerate, but killing not at all. All were confined to homes," Mr Muhith said at the inaugural ceremony of a workshop.
The workshop on "Development challenges of Bangladesh: Where are the news stories?" was jointly organised by Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) and World Bank (WB), Dhaka office at a city hotel.
"We improved public investment. In the private investment the government has not been successful so far," he said.
Mr Muhith held the BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia responsible for the current downward trend in economy.  
"That's absolutely Khaleda Zia's responsibility. It's squarely falls on her shoulder," he said.
The finance minister said lack of confidence shies away investors. "Now we have to face the challenge," he added.
Mr Muhith also pointed out to other impediments for decline in investment including power supply, problems in transport sector etc.
Speaking at the inaugural session, WB country director Christine Kimes said Bangladesh should identify its development priorities and major impediments to foster its economic growth.
Mentioning that the WB has so far provided Bangladesh with US$ 18 billion in support and another $2.7 billion funding from the lender is now in the pipeline, she said the agreement to this effect would be signed shortly.  
The workshop was followed by three working sessions on Bangladesh Development priorities, external financing and ADP implementation and budget reporting.
WB lead economist Salman Zaidi gave a brief presentation on 'Bangladesh Development achievements, challenges and priorities.' Another lead economist of the WB, Dhaka Office, Zahid Hussain spoke on 'how to read and report on budget'. Arastoo Khan, additional secretary of External Resources Division (ERD) spoke on 'external financing trends and ADP utilisation'.
Moazzem Hossain, Editor of The Financial Express (FE), spoke on 'Reporting on Bangladesh's development challenges, priorities and achievements'.    
Executive Editor of The Dhaka Tribune, Shahriar Karim, shared his views on 'reporting on external financing and ADP implementation'. Head of reporting of the Prothom Alo Shawkat Hossain Masum spoke on 'budget reporting'.
Noted economist Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud delivered closing remarks and distributed certificates to the participants in the workshop.
Speaking at the workshop, WB economist Zahid Hussain said there is no necessity to increase tax-free limit for individual taxpayers with a claim to facilitate poor people as they are not in the tax net now as per definition of poverty.
Mr Hussain preferred cut in corporate tax terming it one of the highest among the developing countries.
"Cut in high rate of corporate tax would help the companies show actual accounts and also government to collect increased amount of taxes," he added.
He, however, expressed his doubt over achieving the possible GDP growth projection at 7.3 per cent for the upcoming fiscal year (FY).
FE Editor Moazzem Hossain said Bangladesh is still an 'under performer' despite having enormous potentiality in economic development.
He said the recent abduction incident has raised serious concern among the business community.
Mr Hossain laid emphasis on in-depth and ethical economic reporting, instead of surface reporting.
Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud said there is no justification to debate on GDP growth as the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) is the authority to determine this by measuring economic indicators.
ERF president Sultan Mahmud, general secretary Sajjadur Rahman, among others, also attended the programme.