Budget 2021-22: The Optimistic Budget Is Shuvongkor's Hoax!

The government of Bangladesh no longer considers the country as an  NDC country. They say ‘developing' country. Some even call it a 'developed country'. They can ask for it; but what is the measure of how much a country has improved? According to the government of Bangladesh, the measure of development is the construction of big buildings, bridges, and the provision of grants to some marginalized people through VGF cards. ‘No one in the country is starving anymore’! If it is to be taken for granted by the rulers, then there is nothing more tragic than this. Why would people die without eating even in a poor country? So if so, who says to develop them? 

However, they have termed this year's national budget as timely, poor-friendly, and accelerating the economy. Why this ambition? Because no matter the budget and any anti-people decision, there is no challenge in Parliament.

As usual, the finance minister has expressed optimism about the budget which is done by the finance ministers of all times. Despite various quarters expressing skepticism about the implementation of the new fiscal budget, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal is optimistic. When he is optimistic, then no one else in the country can hear the words of despair! That will be 'betrayal'. He said he believed the budget would be implemented "successfully" this time around, relying on strong economic indicators "in the wake of the past". What is the continuity of the past? Failure. Unadulterated failure. One of the things they've always done in the past was to 'cut the throats' of the poorest people to cover the 'successful' budget deficit. VAT collection. Constantly imposing new taxes. Increasing the rate of VAT. Shorten the list of tax-free products. Direct oppression of the common man's bread and butter. Of course, the business tycoons of the country, the mafia business groups should be given the opportunity to 'whiten' 6 thousand crores of black money without any hesitation.

In order to implement this budget, the government has to borrow one-third of the entire allocation. Although the wheel of the economy has not been fully mobilized to cope with the impact of the epidemic, the finance minister expects 7.2 percent GDP growth. Who will pay the interest on this one-third loan? Who will pay the interest? The common people will give. Meanwhile, the salary and allowance of one of the bureaucrats will increase to 6 lakh and a half lakh.

It is clear that while this year's budget speaks of some good initiatives for domestic industry and trade, it lacks the plan that needed to be in place for health, employment and social security in the event of an epidemic. There is no direction to overcome the crisis in the budget of the epidemic. On the one hand, when there is not enough budget to deal with the epidemic, is the expectation of 7.2 GDP growth realistic at this time of tension due to the epidemic? How implementable is this record deficit budget? How does the finance minister want to balance revenue collection and expenditure? The answer to all this is also known to the common people. In these cases, the government has an instant explanation. This time too he was no exception. 

Responding to criticism that the budget does not have a clear statement on employment, the finance minister said that this year's budget has created "plenty of opportunities" for businessmen to invest. The aim is to expand new businesses in the country, which will create employment. After this statement, we can recall that due to the pandemic of the last one year, 60 to 70 percent of the workers in almost all the industrial establishments of the country have been laid off. About 40 to 50 percent of the workers have been laid off from 4,500 garment factories. According to international data, about one and a half crore people have become unemployed in Bangladesh due to this pandemic. Even after that, the finance minister or the government spokespersons see the spirit of development. See 'lots of opportunities' to invest!

But the reality is that in the current fiscal year 2020-21, there is no direction in the budget on how to achieve 6.1 percent growth in the gross domestic product (GDP).

Again, the GDP growth account for the fiscal year 2019-20 has not been calculated yet. Investment in the private sector has not increased and small enterprises have not received good incentive loans. There are weaknesses in revenue collection. Government expenditure is also less this time. And the budget implementation of the health sector is 25 percent, which is not at all desirable. In the year when spending needs to be higher, the budget has been contracted instead of expanding. That's wonderful!

Last year, the government gave a separate loan incentive of Tk 5,000 crore for the ready-made garment sector alone. The total debt for large industries was Rs 40,000 crore. Government incentives and exports are said to have picked up speed, But this relief has not yet come. The business of the poor merchants did not return to normal. Small traders are not on the list of coronary incentives. Although Tk 20,000 crore has been allocated for cottage, small, medium, and small scale industries, the poor have not been able to reach it. But it should have helped these poor small traders to stand on their own two feet without incentives for the ready-made garment sector, but victims don’t expect anything different in the budget. It is unlikely that the government will provide any incentives to small businesses, nor does it have the infrastructure; Such a reality.

Large, medium, or small, does the new budget need more attention from the government to any kind of entrepreneurs and businessmen? The budget should focus more on those who suffer the most. This is a common thing. From a business point of view, we have to pay attention to those who are smaller. They have had to shut down their businesses, cut their staff, and make their businesses smaller. So the focus should be on that. You don't have to read rocket science to understand it! But our bitter experience is that this is what happens at the command of the Lord. Before the word 'Lord' meant only the ruler, but now in the corporate bania culture, the one who has a little bit of power is the 'Lord'. Ordinary people want freedom from this domination and slavery. Just eating and living is not the last word. It is the democratic right of human beings to live with human dignity.