Thrust on making budget formulation more transparent, participatory
Monday, 14 September 2009
FE Report
The government should take an initiative to change the budget-making process to make it more participatory, transparent and inclusive, former caretaker government adviser Akbar Ali Khan said Sunday.
"People and parliament members should be more involved in the budget making process to make the budget more transparent," he said at a seminar on 'To What Extent is Our National Budget Open' organised by Shamannay, where the Open Budget Index-2008 was revealed.
Bangladesh scored only 42 out of 100 in the index, which means the government provided some incomplete information to the public on the budget and financial activities.
The former adviser in reply to a question about today's half-day hartal called by the National Committee for Protection of Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port said the committee should not call a hartal on the issue of gas export.
"The issue can be resolved through national debate and the government can invite them to a live debate on television to settle the issue," he said.
The committee called the half-day hartal in protest against the move to allow export of gas by a multinational company.
Criticising the budget making process, Mr Akbar said most of the parliament members do not know the real life implication of the revenue proposals or tax cut measures in the budget.
"The government in the current budget cuts income tax on financial institutions by 2.0 percentage points, but there is no explanation on how much revenue the government will lose due to the measure and how it will offset the loss," he pointed out.
In another example, he said the revenue collection would be Tk 620 billion, up from Tk 500 billion, but there was no explanation of why it was not Tk 610 billion or Tk 630 billion.
The budget in 80s or 90s provided a detailed impact of any fiscal measure, he said.
The budget is presented in the parliament in a form, considered suitable by the finance minister, he said adding "The budget cannot be referred to any standing committee for deliberation."
The formulation of the budget should be reviewed annually and the finance ministry should be encouraged to make budget user-friendly and transparent, he said.
The standing committees can be empowered to hold hearings on the budget and in this way it will be more participatory, Mr Akbar said.
The standing committee on health or education or any other ministry can invite stakeholders, experts, members of press and civil society to participate in a hearing on the budget of the particular ministry and put forward recommendations for the government's consideration, he pointed out.
"There are 37 standing committees and if all of them discuss budget for seven days simultaneously, the budget will be more transparent and participatory," he added.
The standing committees can hold their meetings in hotels or other places if the parliament cannot provide enough spaces for the hearings.
Additional secretary of the finance ministry Arastu Khan said it is imperative to make sure the people have their role in the budget making process.
"The finance minister while preparing the current budget held meetings with all the stakeholders in the pre-budget meetings," he said.
He, however, admitted that the timing of the meetings was not appropriate as there was little scope to change the budget then in light of the recommendations derived from the meetings.
It is difficult to change the budget as people do not like changes, he added.
Mr Arastu said the budget is formulated on some assumptions, but there is no clear explanation of how the ministry estimates a certain figure mentioned in a budget, he added.
The government should take an initiative to change the budget-making process to make it more participatory, transparent and inclusive, former caretaker government adviser Akbar Ali Khan said Sunday.
"People and parliament members should be more involved in the budget making process to make the budget more transparent," he said at a seminar on 'To What Extent is Our National Budget Open' organised by Shamannay, where the Open Budget Index-2008 was revealed.
Bangladesh scored only 42 out of 100 in the index, which means the government provided some incomplete information to the public on the budget and financial activities.
The former adviser in reply to a question about today's half-day hartal called by the National Committee for Protection of Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port said the committee should not call a hartal on the issue of gas export.
"The issue can be resolved through national debate and the government can invite them to a live debate on television to settle the issue," he said.
The committee called the half-day hartal in protest against the move to allow export of gas by a multinational company.
Criticising the budget making process, Mr Akbar said most of the parliament members do not know the real life implication of the revenue proposals or tax cut measures in the budget.
"The government in the current budget cuts income tax on financial institutions by 2.0 percentage points, but there is no explanation on how much revenue the government will lose due to the measure and how it will offset the loss," he pointed out.
In another example, he said the revenue collection would be Tk 620 billion, up from Tk 500 billion, but there was no explanation of why it was not Tk 610 billion or Tk 630 billion.
The budget in 80s or 90s provided a detailed impact of any fiscal measure, he said.
The budget is presented in the parliament in a form, considered suitable by the finance minister, he said adding "The budget cannot be referred to any standing committee for deliberation."
The formulation of the budget should be reviewed annually and the finance ministry should be encouraged to make budget user-friendly and transparent, he said.
The standing committees can be empowered to hold hearings on the budget and in this way it will be more participatory, Mr Akbar said.
The standing committee on health or education or any other ministry can invite stakeholders, experts, members of press and civil society to participate in a hearing on the budget of the particular ministry and put forward recommendations for the government's consideration, he pointed out.
"There are 37 standing committees and if all of them discuss budget for seven days simultaneously, the budget will be more transparent and participatory," he added.
The standing committees can hold their meetings in hotels or other places if the parliament cannot provide enough spaces for the hearings.
Additional secretary of the finance ministry Arastu Khan said it is imperative to make sure the people have their role in the budget making process.
"The finance minister while preparing the current budget held meetings with all the stakeholders in the pre-budget meetings," he said.
He, however, admitted that the timing of the meetings was not appropriate as there was little scope to change the budget then in light of the recommendations derived from the meetings.
It is difficult to change the budget as people do not like changes, he added.
Mr Arastu said the budget is formulated on some assumptions, but there is no clear explanation of how the ministry estimates a certain figure mentioned in a budget, he added.