BEA places Tk17.38-lakh-crore alternative budget
The revenue income of the alternative budget has been estimated at Tk16 lakh 3 thousand 718 crore
The Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) has placed an alternative budget worth Tk17,38,716 crore for the fiscal year 2021-22, which is more than three times the budget of the current fiscal year, with an estimated budget deficit of Tk1.35 lakh crore.
The president of the association, Prof Dr Abul Barkat, presented the alternative budget proposal at a virtual press conference titled "Covid-19 and Alternative Budget for Overcoming Socio-Economic Recession: Proposal of Bangladesh Economic Association for FY22" on Tuesday.
Including this one, BEA has placed alternative budgets seven times so far.
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Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal is expected to place the budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year in the parliament on Thursday.
Abul Barkat said, "The revenue income of our alternative budget has been estimated at Tk16 lakh 3 thousand 718 crore. The revenue sector will provide 92.20% of the total budget. Of this, 79% will be direct tax and the remaining 21% will be an indirect tax."
"In our proposal, there will be a qualitative transformation in the budget allocation structure with a much higher development budget than the operating budget, which is just the opposite in FY21 with a development-operating budget allocation ratio of 38:62. The ratio in our alternative budget is 69:31," said Barkat.
He added that there will be no need for any foreign loans to finance. We will not take a bank loan to meet this deficit because bank loans are not for the government. The deficit will be filled through the bond market, savings certificates and public-private partnership.
"Our proposed budget is reasonable to build a beautiful Bangladesh without any discrimination, by tackling the impact of socio-economic catastrophe and Covid-19 epidemic. This budget is a rapidly-expanding massive budget," he said further.
Wealth tax, tax on extra profits, tax on luxury goods, tax exemption on lawmaker's cars were proposed at the press conference.
Dr Barkat said that many foreign consultants do not pay income tax. If they can be brought under the tax, the income will be Tk4,000 crore.
