The Centre for Policy Dialogue on Saturday said the government should be cautious and show restrain in preparing the national budget for the new fiscal year before general elections.
The CPD, a private think-tank, also urged the government not to give more focus on populist measures in the new fiscal year just because of the election year.In a media briefing on ‘Recommendations for the national budget FY 2013-14’ in Dhaka its officials argued that the new fiscal measures should not be heavy with the populist measures as those might hamper the prudent financial management.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of the think-tank, told reporters that the government should calculate carefully before adopting the new fiscal measures against the backdrop of the lingering political uncertainties.
‘The government has to sustain many pressures ahead of the national elections,’ he said. Debapriya pointed out that the new fiscal measures on the point of view of restrains would be more effective.
The CPD observed that the budgetary allocation for education and health sector might shrink as the government plans to implement the multi-billion-dollar Padma Bridge with own fund because of non-availability of loan from World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency.
It said the government should not give any opportunity of legalising undisclosed money. It argued that offering such opportunity in name of attracting investment was ‘unethical’.
The CPD projected that growth rate of the country’s gross domestic product in the outgoing fiscal year would not cross 6 per cent. It said projected GDP growth rate of 7.2 was ambitious. It urged the government to project a ‘realistic’ growth projection for the new fiscal year.
The CPD, while evaluating the indicators of the outgoing fiscal year, said the inflow of remittance and the implementation rate of the annual development programme were good.
But revenue mobilisation is not up to the mark because of growing shortfall between collection and projection, it said. The revenue generation target may miss the target, it projected.
The CPD blamed that the ongoing political situation was hampering the macro-economic stability.
It said the government should enhance monitoring into the share market and introduce a code of conduct for attracting long-term investment.
The CPD observed that the government failed to make expected progress in addressing the electricity shortage. It noted that the gap between demand and generation was still 2,500 megawatt.
It urged the government to put aside special allocation in the budget for repairing the damaged power stations caused due to political violence in the last two months.
newagebd
-With New Age input
