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Implementation main challenge

Says WB in budget reaction

Star Business Report
The World Bank (WB) has said the main challenge in the budget for the next fiscal year is its implementation, and the finance minister's budget speech lacked a clearer roadmap on how to gather pace in the implementation rate.
WB acting country director Zahid Hossain in its Dhaka office yesterday presented the donor agency's reaction to the budget and said: "The budget intends to be more self-reliant, infrastructure friendly and inclusive, but it lacks specific guidelines on its implementation."
He said the budget is "moderately expansionary but yet sustainable". The main challenge is ensuring high implementation rate of the investment programmes in key growth areas like energy, roads and railways, bridge, shipping, water resources, he added.
Hossain said the growth has to come from these sectors. "In the current fiscal year it was seen that though higher allocation was made for the energy sector, it could not be implemented."
He said increasing investment is another challenge in the next budget.
In the next fiscal year GDP (gross domestic product) growth has been expected to increase by 0.7 percentage
point over the current year's growth. He said the target is ambitious but achievable.
GDP growth will be 0.7 percent or more than the current year's and such a rate of increase was seen 11 times after 1971, the WB official said.
Hossain said 5.5 percent growth in the current fiscal year is quite good in the international and domestic context. It was consumption-led growth, which was possible due to a higher remittance inflow. But if investment, especially public investment, does not increase, the consumption-led growth will not be sustainable, he added.
The WB official said financial viability of the state-owned enterprises in energy sector should be ensured for increasing production in the power sector.
He urged the government to make the subsidies transparent through explicit provisions in the budget.
On the Tk 5,000 crore subsidy being talked about, he said: "I don't see anything to worry about it. If it contributes to an increase in power and gas supply, it will lead to a rise in investment and growth."
Hossain said if the reforms proposals for VAT (value added tax) are implemented, the target for revenue collection will be achieved.