DU CORRESPONDENT

The government, for the first time in Bangladesh, has announced tax rates for five years to provide businesses with greater policy certainty and help create jobs, said Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, the prime minister’s adviser on planning and economic affairs.

Businesses need stable tax policies to plan investments, and the announcement of tax rates for five years in advance will be instrumental in this regard, he said yesterday.

Speaking at a discussion titled “Youth in National Budget 2026-27: Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship” at Dhaka University, he said the budget seeks to build a state centred on public welfare and democracy.

To help reduce borrowing costs and encourage entrepreneurship, the government is working to lower lending rates, Titumir said.

“We are ensuring liquidity at a 3 percent rate so that entrepreneurs can get loans at interest rates of 5 to 7 percent,” he said.

“Our manifesto clearly states that socioeconomic development and sustainable state capability must be achieved,” he said.

The PM’s adviser said the government has given priority to energy, education, health and social protection in the budget for the next fiscal year.

The government has set a target of generating 20 percent of the country’s energy from renewable sources and plans to establish emergency energy reserves, he said.

Titumir said the government aims to increase public investment in education.

He said hospitals established during the tenures of former president Ziaur Rahman and former prime minister Khaleda Zia would be expanded to 101 beds.

Kidney dialysis centres and coronary care units will also be established in every district.

On social protection, he said the government was replacing what he described as a politically biased welfare system with a “lifecycle-based” approach to support citizens at different stages of life, including children, older people, widows and people with disabilities.

At the event, DU Treasurer Prof M Jahangir Alam criticised the budgetary allocation for university research.

He said the University Grants Commission has taken full control of research funding, leaving Dhaka University with no independent research allocation.

“With a 2 percent allocation, can one become a research university?” he said, questioning how the government’s vision of building an innovation-driven economy could be achieved without allowing the country’s leading university to manage its own research funds.