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Strong local govt needed to implement social safety net programme

Seminar told
Speakers at a seminar have warned without the involvement of a strong local government, it will be difficult to ensure that the huge sum of money, allocated for social safety net programme, will reach the deserving poor.
The allocation ofTk 16, 982 crore for social safety net programme in the proposed budget, which is 48 percent higher than that of the previous year, will provide cushion to the poor against super price hike of essentials, they added.
The speakers also urged the government to enact laws prohibiting use of agricultural land for other use, as the country loses some 10,000 hectares of arable land every year for industrial and commercial purposes, according to a press release.
In addition, every year the country loses sizeable dwellings and farmlands to river erosion, the seminar was told.
The University of Development Alternative
(UODA) on Sunday organised the seminar on 'National Budget 2008-09', which was presided over by its Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Emajuddin Ahmed and was addressed, among others, by Prof Dr Mahbub Ullah of Dhaka University and Prof Dr Mustafizur Rahman, a former VC of Bangladesh Agriculture University.
According to the speakers, the challenges that the government will face in implementing the mega budget include achieving ambitious revenue target of Tk 69, 382 crore and implementing the ADP (An-nual Development Programme).
Prof Mahbub Ullah said the tax-GDP ratio in Bangladesh is only 11 percent, which is very low even compared to the neighboring countries. Welfare countries like Sweden have this ratio as high as 50 percent that enables them to provide blanket social security to all citizens. “There is no
other way but to increase revenue collection by taking a series of measures," he said.
Regarding poor implementation of ADR he pointed out that uncertain revenue collection and rising cost of building materials are major reasons behind such failure.
Siddique Hayat Khan, a senior lecturer of UODA, said the proposed budget has the largest deficit of overTk 30,000 crore. So, the government will rely heavily on borrowing from the financial sector to the tune of Tkl3, 498 crore, about 30 percent increase over the previous year, he added.
As businesses fear, this heavy borrowing may lead to a liquidity crisis in the financial system, Khan said.
In addition, the government will have to payTk 12,557 crore or 12.6 percent of the budget as interest payments, which shows how increasing government borrowing will create pressure on the budget, according to Siddique.