Experts at a prologue on the national budget urged the government to allocate at least 10% of budget for health sector and 20% in the social security sector.
They mentioned, the preserved amount of ADP from previous budget should utilize in the prioritized sectors to save the economy as the COVID-19 pandemic has been proven to be a fatality for Bangladesh’s economy, like all the other country’s across the world.
The Centre on budget and Policy (CBP), University of Dhaka, organized this “Pre-Budget Virtual Dialogue 2020” on Tuesday.
Vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman, took part as the Chief guest of the program while Professor Dr. Md. Kamal Uddin, Treasurer, DU attended as the Chair in this virtual dialogue.
Professor Dr. Atiur Rahman, ex-governor of Bangladesh Bank and Bangabandhu Chair professor at University of Dhaka, was present as Guest of Honor of the dialogue.
Professor Dr. ASM Maksud Kamal, President of Dhaka University Teacher’s Association, Professor Dr. Mustafizur Rahman, Senate Member of University of Dhaka and Distinguished Fellow of Center for Policy Dialogue, Dr. Selim Raihan, Professor of Economics, Univarsity of Dhaka and Executive Director of SANEM, Dr. Taiabur Rahman, Professor of Development Studies Department at University of Dhaka, and Dr. Kazi Maruful Islam, Professor of Development Studies Department at University of Dhaka, joined as Special Discussants in this dialogue.
Professor Dr. M. Abu Eusuf, Director of Center on Budget and Policy (CBP), presented the keynote speech of this program. This dialog program was moderated by Md. Imran Hossain Bhuiyan, Assistant Professor of Development Studies Department, University of Dhaka.
Professor Dr. M Abu Eusuf presented the keynote speech of this program.
In his keynote, Prof. Dr. Eusuf suggested to inhibit the reduction of GDP, increasing poverty rate, instability in market economy, and the effects of world economic recession.
He focused on increasing budget on health and social protection programmes to ensure public health and to normalize the life of marginalized people.
Mentioning that the preserved amount of ADP from previous budget should utilize in the prioritized sectors to save our economy, he advised the government to allocate at least 10% of our budget for health sector and 20% in our social security sector.
Later, to discuss on the keynote speech, Professor Dr. Selim Raihan focused on spending more budget on health, education, and social protection. He emphasized on effective budget implementation with more transparency and less leakages.
He also mentioned that the budget deficit can be raised from current rate of 5% of GDP to 8% of GDP for the next budget.
Following Dr. Selim Rahman, Dr. Taiabur Rahman presented his thoughts. He asked to make the budget preparation more participatory in coming years, via both online and offline participation from different segments of citizens and professionals across the country. Furthermore, he urged for more active roles of parliamentary standing committees in preparing and implementing budget effectively.
And then, Dr. Mustafizur Rahman delivered his speech. He addressed the current crisis as three-pronged crisis, combining health, economic and humanitarian crises together.
Then he drew Government’s attention to implement universal health care policy as soon as possible. Moreover, he mentioned to devise and implement health insurance for all. Finally, he also suggested government and banking sector to create subsidized loan support, like we see in the developed world, for the underprivileged university students to pursue higher education.
Dr. Atiur Rahman asked for continued financial as well as technical supports for the frontline workers in the coming years too.
He mentioned that the upcoming budget to be a “A Budget for survival” (beche thakar budget). He asked to implement necessary steps like providing cash transfers to the marginalized people by using mobile financial services.
To save our agriculture sector, he requested to the government authority to vanish the middlemen problem and collect paddy and other crops directly from the farmers.
To finance the expansionary budget next year, he suggested Bangladesh Bank to sell more online bond to the non-resident Bangladeshis, to expand the balance sheet, and to put larger refinancing schemes to provide loans for the marginalized people at lower interest rates.
He also suggested the government to keep up the game in ‘economic diplomacy’ to receive bigger loan packages from World Bank, IMF, ADB, and IDB.
Professor Dr. ASM Maksud Kamal, President of Dhaka University Teacher’s Association emphasized the need for more technical and financial attention to the disaster management and relief activities in the next budget.
Referring to the multi-faceted crises brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and the probable devastation that Super Cyclone Amphan could bring, he mentioned that disaster management as well as relief management are two key areas we need more planning and financing in the coming years.
Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman, Vice-chancellor of Dhaka University mentioned that the public universities of Bangladesh are the true example of being economical while serving a larger segment of population at a very limited budget.
He called upon the richer segments of the population to become more kind to the underprivileged people during this crisis.
