Political parties of the country have given mixed reactions over the proposed national budget for 2021-2022 fiscal year, which was placed in the Parliament on Thursday (June 3).
The ruling Awami League (AL) and its allies in their instant reactions described the budget as pro-people and expressed the hope that the budget would accelerate the country’s development process. Different political parties, particularly the BNP and its allies, were critical about the proposed budget and termed it ‘as usual’, ‘debt-ridden’ and ‘anti-people’.
Awami League’s general secretary Obaidul Quader has said the proposed budget for fiscal 2021-22 is pro-people and development-oriented. There is no negativity in it. The budget is a unique charter to fulfill the aspiration of the countrymen,” Obaidul Quader said in his instant reaction while talking to journalists at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban just after placing the budget proposal.
He said that Awami League would express its formal reaction over the proposed budget today (Friday).
Obaidul Quader, however, said that it was the greatest budget in the history of the country. The budget was placed in the Parliament giving highest priority to saving the lives and livelihood of the people.
He also said that the proposed budget for the next fiscal year is very significant as the country celebrates 50 years of independence and is passing through a crisis due to global pandemic.
Awami League’s joint general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif welcomed the budget and said that the proposed budget would help people to be courageous during the present situation of Covid-19 pandemic. Although the proposed budget is very good and pro-people, it is challenging in the current pandemic situation. The government will overcome the challenge and implement the budget properly.
BNP in its initial reaction described the proposed budget as debt-ridden and unimplementable, expressing the doubt whether the budget would be possible to achieve the target.
The party’s standing committee member Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan made the reaction on behalf of the party. He said that the proposed budget for FY2021-22 won’t fulfill the people’s expectations as the people’s livelihood and humanity were totally ignored in the proposed budget. It is an ‘as usual’ budget, The people will be the sufferer in meeting the budget deficit, he added.
He criticized the government for keeping scope for ‘whitening black money’ and said that it is an effort to continue corruption in the country.
The BNP leader said that the government proposed huge allocations for mega projects and power projects in an attempt to commit corruption and to create scope for the ruling party men to plunder public money. He also said that the proposed budget would worsen further sufferings of common people at this time of Covid-19 pandemic.
Jatiya Party, the main opposition party in the Parliament, in its initial reaction said that the proposed budget is imaginary and not implementable.
Talking to the journalists in the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, the party’s chairman GM Quader said that the proposed budget might not be successful to fulfill the expectations of the people. It has to be revised, he added.
He said that it is necessary to ensure that the allocation is spent properly for the welfare of people, by preventing corruption and waste. Only then the budget will be welfare-oriented.
Bangladesh National Awami Party (Bangladesh NAP) in its reaction said that the people won’t get benefit from this budget if the government fails to prevent corruption and looting. The party claimed that the budget might increase the disparity between the rich and the poor.
In a joint statement, the party’s chairman Jebel Rahman Ghaani and secretary general M Golam Mostafa Bhuiyan said that the government’s dependence on foreign debt will increase public sufferings. The interest of the common people even in the Covid-19 situation has been neglected in the proposed budget, they commented. The NAP leaders opposed the scope for ‘whitening black money’.
Jatiya Gonotantrik Front said that the proposed budget is as usual, and against the interest of the people. The path of looting has been widened through the budget, said the party’s president Dr MA Karim and general secretary Brig Gen (Retd) M Jahangir Hossain.
In a joint statement, the two leaders said that their party will hold a demonstration rally against the proposed budget in front of the National Press Club in the capital at 10:00 am today (Friday).
