DHAKA: Dhaka-based independent multidisciplinary think-tank Unnayan Onneshan (UO) Friday termed the proposed-budget “long on targets, short on realities” in achieving goals.
The organization also doubted that government may not achieve its target of 7.3 percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) – a 1.18 percent increase than that of the previous fiscal.
UO’s assertion came through an assessment on the proposed budget titled “A Rapid Assessment of National Budget 2014-15.”
The organization said, “The budget speech (of the finance minster) hardly mentions, let alone investigates into the reasons of, and suggests remedies for, the arrested growth rate of the GDP at six percent and fixes a growth rate of over seven per cent for the fourth time in a row.”
UO termed the budget “long on targets, short on realities” of achieving goals.
The share of investment to GDP requires a rise to 34.24 percent in FY 2014-15 from that of 28.69 percent in 2013-14 in order to achieve the proposed 7.3 percent growth rate, the think-tank estimated.
UO cautioned that the excessive dependence on financing the deficit through domestic borrowing would lead price hike, which is likely to undermine the government’s target of inflation to 7.0 percent from 7.38 percent in April 2014.
Local industries would have to face serious challenge as supplementary import duty on 770 commodities have been proposed to decrease, viewed the UO.
The think tank called for employment-friendly budgetary allocations in the productive sectors as the total unemployed population may increase to 3.3 million by 2015.
“The regressive tax structure is ridden with low base, avoidance and evasion. There is huge missing of distributive justice, characterized by widening income, spatial and male-female inequalities, driven by jobless growth,” it said.
“As a result, need for a pro-active state that would ensure social protection through innovation in social policies is pressing,” added the UO.
The research organisation said, “Proposed actions are inadequate to bring fiscal discipline in the management of deficit, debt and subsidy one the one hand and to increase income in the absence of radical reforms in the tax system on the other.”
BDST: 1455 HRS, JUNE 06, 2014
