Finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed on Tuesday said that they might drop the undisclosed money legalisation facility from the measures proposed in the national budget for the 2025-26 financial year.
鈥業f you think that the proposed provision is unethical, the matter will be reviewed,鈥� said the finance adviser at a press briefing in the capital Dhaka, one day after unveiling the first national budget under the interim government.
The budget proposal regarding the legalisation of undisclosed money has drawn criticism from different quarters.
Responding to questions from reporters, he admitted that the proposed measure was not a big deal and was given under compulsion.
The finance adviser was aided by planning adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud, power, energy and mineral resources adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, commerce adviser Sk Bashir Uddin, and home and agriculture adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury.
Bangladesh Bank governor Ahsan H Mansur, cabinet secretary Sheikh Abdur Roshid, finance secretary Khairuzzman Mazumder and National Board of Revenue chairman Abdur Rahman were also present on the occasion.
Answering to a question about equity, the finance adviser said that allocations for women, changes in bonded warehouse and tariff rationalisation were linked to ensuring more equitable system.
The finance secretary mentioned the forthcoming measures like appointing employees in the vacant government posts, holding special examinations for recruiting officers under the Bangladesh Civil Service, allocation of Tk聽100 crore for start-ups and Tk聽125 crore for creation of entrepreneurs as the employment scopes in the budget.
On a query about the recovery of stolen assets, the finance adviser said that they would able to bring back some money in one or two years.
Mentioning the overall process as time consuming and the launderers as clever, he said that he would not have asked budget support from the International Monetary Fund had some of the money stolen during the authoritarian Awami League regime, which was ousted past year in a mass uprising, been already recovered.
Defending the proposed measures in the FY26 budget, the finance adviser said that they had to follow the framework of three years to prepare the budget to keep the policy consistency.
Calling the budget pragmatic and almost rhetoric free, the finance adviser said that they disengaged them from the growth-centric narrative.
Thanking the finance adviser for announcing the budget amid economic recovery, planning adviser Wahiduddin said that a substantial part of the non-development budget was to be spent for the interest payment.
He also said that the proposed budget was an attempt to end the trend of clearing loan liability with taking fresh loans.
While commenting on the budget, the energy adviser, the commerce adviser and the home and agricultural adviser appreciated the finance adviser for helping them to solve problems in their sectors over the past 10 months of the interim government.聽聽聽聽聽聽
The commerce adviser said that they were able to restore comfort on the commodity market while the agriculture adviser said that they were expecting bumper harvest of boro rice.
Highlighting the efforts to stabilise the exchange rate, Bangladesh Bank governor Ahsan H Mansur hoped that the inflation rate would fall below the target of 6.5 per cent in the next financial year.
He also said that the central bank would reduce interest rate once inflation dropped below 7 per cent.
