Raising domestic investment, FDI priority of next budget

Finance Minister AMA Muhith said Thursday that the priority of the government was to raise both domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI) of the country in the next budget.
"Although the public sector investment growth was good, the same in the private sector was stagnant. We want to attain a big lift in private investment in the next fiscal year," the Finance Minister said while he was exchanging views with a group of leading economists at a pre-budget discussion held at the Finance Ministry conference room.
Mustafa K Mujeri, Director General of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Ahsan H. Mansur, Executive Director, Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, Dr. Zaidi Sattar, Chairman, Policy Research Institute, Dr. Zaid Bakht, Research Director of BIDS, Dr. Nazneen Ahmed, Research Fellow of BIDS, Rushidan Islam Rahman, Research Director, BIDS, and Dr. Binayak Sen, Research Director, BIDS, participated in the discussion.
The Finance Minister said the estimated size of the next fiscal year's (FY) budget would be Tk 2.5 trillion.
"The next budget will be an ambitious one as it is the first budget of the new government," the minister said. He said under the budget the government would set an economic target for its next five years' period.
When asked whether the government would stay in power for the next five years, the minister said he did not know about it.
Pointing out the vital aspects of the next budget, Mr Muhith said in the next fiscal year the government would allocate money in favour of the local government organisations like those based in upazilas and zillas (districts), so that these organisations can meet expenses from the said funds.
The minister said the draft on direct tax was ready, which would be implemented in the next budget. The minister also said the financial reporting act (FRA) would be placed before the next session of parliament for approval.
Mr Muhith said he rejected an idea that the next fiscal year's budget deficit had to be kept at more than five per cent of the GDP. "According to my long experience and observation of other neighbouring countries, keeping the budget deficit below five per cent of GDP is safe for the economy," he said  
The economists, who attended the first pre-budget consultative meeting, proposed that the minister create a 'vulnerability fund'. The minister accepted the idea and said the ministry would examine it.
The economists suggested the minister to form two advisory committees for the ministry. The Finance Minister accepted the proposal saying the ministry would soon form two such advisory committees to oversee the revenue and finance divisions.
The economists proposed that the minister allocate funds in favour of Union Councils, but Mr Muhith disagreed with the proposal.
The economists also proposed to the government to introduce a national land use planning. The finance minister agreed to the proposal, saying that in order to achieve food self-sufficiency the government needed to ensure a balance in land use. The economists also suggested to the minister for giving priority in the next budget to the development of railway and implementation of projects under the public private partnership (PPP) project.
They, however, recommended the government to enhance the internal control system and management of both state-owned and private commercial banks.
The economists recommended preparation of the gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection for quarterly periods by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) instead of the annual basis, currently in practice.
The Finance Minister expressed his dissatisfaction with the quality of report prepared by BBS on the employment scenario.