The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Monday said that the proposed budget for the next fiscal year contained serious risks in financing and implementation.
Although there are many positive elements in the proposed budget, there are also risks in achieving targeted GDP growth, revenue earnings, deficit financing, annual development programme implementation, private investment and preventing corruption, the DCCI said at a post-budget press briefing in the city.
The trade body also demanded withdrawal of the proposed scope for legalising undisclosed money through investing in land and apartment.
It demanded that the government provide such facility for purchasing industrial land and commercial apartment.
It also criticised the finance minister’s decision of increasing import duty on import of newsprint for newspaper industry saying that the decision would put negative impact on the media.
The DCCI also urged the government to withdraw the proposal of increasing duty on newspaper import.
‘In the proposed budget, there are serious risks in financing as well as implementation,’ said DCCI president Sabur Khan at the briefing held at its office.
Achieving the targeted GDP growth at 7.2 per cent and revenue collection target set by the National Board of Revenue may not be possible due to probable political unrest, slowdown in economic activities such as import and export, lower than expected private investment because of credit constraint and lack of gas and electricity, he said.
Full implementation of the annual development programme will also be uncertain if the government can not spend the fund allocated for the Padma Bridge, he said.
Sabur said that the projection of borrowing from foreign sources for deficit financing was also very much risky considering the prevailing reality where the government was going to fail in getting foreign loans and grants targeted for the current fiscal year.
He said that the opportunity of legalising untaxed money by investing in land and apartment would increase the prices of land and apartment manifold and would go beyond common people.
‘So we demand that the government provide such scope for only productive sector such as in buying land for setting up industries and apartments for commercial uses,’ Sabur said.
The DCCI also demanded a reduction in borrowing from banks and find alternative sources for deficit financing.
The government can finance total deficit just by preventing corruption occurring in land buying and selling process or in toll collection system or by popularising 3G service of Teletalk, Sabur said adding that there were so many ‘magic’ solutions for the government instead of dependence on bank borrowing.
The DCCI president said that there were no realistic steps for accelerating implementation process of projects under public private partnership, establishing medium and long term power plants, completing four-lane of Dhaka-Chittagong highway and formulating coal policy.
He, however, hailed the government’s decision of allocating highest fund for development of infrastructure, transportation and communication, providing tax holiday for different industries, incentives for the stock market, decreasing duty on import of capital machinery and raw materials and increasing tax-free threshold for individual taxpayers.
DCCI senior vice-president Nessar Maksud Khan and vice-president Absar Karim Chowdhury were present, among others, at the briefing.
-With New Age input
