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Long-term poverty eradication policy eludes budget

Speakers observe at post-budget seminar

STAR BUSINESS REPORT
Long-term poverty eradication policy eludes budget
Speakers observe at post-budget seminar
Speakers at seminar yesterday observed the proposed budget for the 2003-04 fiscal lacks long-term policy guidelines to eradicate poverty.
They said the budget has been formulated under the three-year Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, which does not have specific programmes to uproot poverty.
Many of the programmes are unrealistic in the context of Bangladesh, they said.
They were speaking at a seminar titled "National Budget: Designing a Pro-Poor Budget for Bangladesh" organised by Bangladesh Foundation for Development Research (BFDR) at the CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka.
Addressing the seminar, Atiur Rahman, senior research fellow of the Bangladesh
Institute of Development Studies, said there is no specific strategy for poverty alleviation in the proposed budget.
Moreover, no long-term vision for economic development has been projected, he said.
He also said this budget will increase income discrimination among different income group people.
There is no accountability in the presentation and implementation of the budget, said Abdur Razzak, a member of the parliament.
He also said imposing of supplementary duty on sugar may be a strategy to protect local sugar industry. But as the government has no comprehensive policy in this regard, it will not be helpful to promote domestic sugar industry, he added.
There is no fund allocated for research works in the proposed budget, which is essen-
tial, he said.
Referring to the Tk 345 crore allocation for micro-credit programmes, AMA Muhit, former finance minister, observed government interference in the micro-credit sector may have a negative impact.
Rehman Sobhan, chairman of independent think tank Centre for Policy Dialogue, said there are structural problems in the budget and Annual Development Programme (ADP) implementation plan.
Reza Kibria, associate professor of Department of Economics of Dhaka University, presented keynote paper in the seminar.
In order to have a 'pro-poor' budget, both revenue and expenditure policies need to be reformulated, he said.
There are many fiscal measures in the proposed budget that appear to be beneficial
for the upper income groups, he said.
The proposed Tk 20,300 crore allocation for the Annual Development Programme in the budget has not met with the favourable reception anticipated by the government, he said.
Improvement in tax administration will certainly be desirable, but there is a need to deal with the underlying problems associated with the poor compliance rates, he said.
He also criticised the government for a large increase in the recurrent spending programmes, as revenue spending has been projected at Tk 28,969 crore, representing a 14.5 per cent rise over the previous year's revised budget figure of Tk 25,307 crore.
Former finance minister ASM Kibria, chairman of the foundation, presided over the seminar.