The interim government has wasted a huge opportunity for formulating the national budget under a new model that embodies the spirit of July uprising, said economists and politicians at a discussion on Wednesday.
The July-August student-led mass uprising ousted the authoritarian Awami League regime on August 5, 2024.
Observing that the proposed measures in the budget for the 2025-26 financial year are almost the continuation of 鈥榚conometrics鈥� of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, they said that those were proposed without any discussions with political parties and other stakeholders.
They criticised the interim government for giving more focus on the proposed management of the country鈥檚 seaports by overseas private parties than on steps needed for the national capacity building to increase gas production as well as other industrial production at the domestic level.
Economist Anu Muhammad said that lack of transparency in budgetary allocations still persisted although how much money would be spent in different areas like the car purchase or the construction of buildings under the allocations in health and education sectors could easily be given in the budget.
Saying that the proposed import liberalisation is linked to the threat of reciprocal tariff policy by US president Donald Trump, Anu Muhammad said more dependency on imports might backfire amid a war between Iran and Israel.
The post-budget discussion titled 鈥楴ational Budget 2025鈥�26: What is There for the Left-behinds?鈥� was organised by the Citizen鈥檚 Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh before the passage of the budget on June 22.
Academicians, businesses, right activities and public officials also attended the discussion. On June 2, finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed presented the first budget of the interim government that assumed power on August 8.
Citizen鈥檚 Platform for SDGs convener Debapriya Bhattacharya, also a distinguished fellow of local think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue, presided over the discussion begun with the keynote presentation by Towfiqul Islam Khan, senior research fellow of the CPD.
Towfiqul said that fiscal measures lacked transparency while the undisclosed money legalisation facility was proposed without any justification.
CPD distinguished fellow Mustafizur Rahman, South Asian Network on Economic Modelling executive director Selim Raihan, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Mahmud Hasan Khan, economist Zia Hassan, Institute of Cost and Management Accountants president Mahtab Uddin Ahmed and SMAC Advisory Services Ltd director Snehasish Barua also participated in the discussion.
Selim criticised the Finance Division for using flawed data of the ousted AL regime to prepare the fiscal measures while Zia Hasan observed that the 鈥楬asina econometrics鈥� continued.
The BGMEA president expressed concerns about the supply situation of gas and power.
Mustafizur said that the proposed income tax structure was not friendly towards taxpayers at the mid and lower levels.
He lamented that a historic chance emerged from the July uprising for bringing about a new model was wasted.
Mahdi Amin, adviser to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting chairman, Jamaat-e-Islami central committee member Saiful Alam Khan and Samantha Sharmin, senior joint convener of the National Citizen Party, also participated in the discussion.
Samantha said they were not invited in the pre-budget meetings.
Most of the speakers were sceptic about fiscal measures aimed at employment and increasing private sector investment. They also expressed disappointment with the social safety net budget.
Maleka Banu, general secretary of the Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, lamented that the allocation for the women and children decreased in the new budget, but thanked the finance adviser鈥檚 proposal to bring women鈥檚 unpaid care and domestic work in the economic calculation.
Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, the head of the Labour Reform Commission, said a nexus of bureaucrats and technocrats might lead the interim government to be more focus on political reforms than economic reforms.
He alleged that some eight crore workers were kept out of budget priorities.
Debapriya said that the citizen groups and other civil society groups should have been more proactive before the budget announcement so that the interim government meets the demands.
