STAR BUSINESS REPORT

The ousted Awami League-led government effectively held the people “hostage” by taking the bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with difficult conditions in 2022, said Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, finance and planning adviser to the prime minister.

The AL took the loans after using public projects as tools of appeasement and plunder, he alleged yesterday while addressing a seminar on economic challenges and planning of the government for the next 180 days.

He, however, acknowledged that the agreements inked by previous governments, both with the IMF and the United States, must be honoured under international norms.

“What we can do is review the conditions of those agreements,” he said at the event organised by the Economic Reporters’ Forum at its own auditorium in the capital.

The IMF loan conditions mandate that Bangladesh significantly increase its tax-GDP ratio, which is one of the lowest globally at under 7 percent, through ambitious reforms under its loan programme.

Titumir, however, said there is no way to increase the GDP-to-revenue ratio overnight as the BNP-led government inherited a “troubled” economy.

Citing an example, he said if the government raised domestic fuel prices following outside prescriptions amid global price hikes caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran, inflation would have surged to an unbearable level. “We cannot do that because we are accountable to the people.”

Referring to the BNP’s election manifesto, he stated that the government aims to “realistically” increase the tax-GDP ratio to 10 percent by 2030 and 15 percent by 2035.

“The problems we face must be addressed through our own domestic solutions, and the government has already begun that process,” he said.

Citing examples of such steps, he mentioned that the government waived loans of up to Tk 10,000 for farmers, initiated efforts to universalise social safety net “Many