“Highest priority should be given to health and agriculture sector in this budget. People must be saved first. If people live, the economy will live. Therefore, the allocation in the health sector should be further increased”, said eminent Economist and former Governor of Bangladesh Bank, Dr. Atiur Rahman on Sunday.
Addressing a discussion program on reflection of the national budget, he said at the same time the allocation in the agriculture sector should be increased to survive the rural economy.
Faculty of Business & Entrepreneurship of Daffodil International University (DIU) organized a discussion program on ‘Reflection of National Budget’ Sunday through Facebook page of the university and Campus TV Facebook page.
Professor Dr. Atiur Rahman attended the discussion as the chief guest while Md. Nurul Amin, Immediate Past Secretary of Planning Division, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and Shams Mahmud, President of Dhaka Chamber of Comers & Industries (DCCI) were present at the program as the special guests.
Presided over by Professor Dr. Mohammad Masum Iqbal, Dean, Faculty of Business & Entrepreneurship of DIU, the program was conducted by Syed Mizanur Rahman, Director of Student Affairs, DIU.
While addressing as the chief guest Professor Dr. Atiur Rahman also said that no country in the world has given a budget before in such an uncertain environment. The crisis we are going through now is not the crisis of our alone, its a crisis of all over the world. At this pandemic time we should also have a budget for survival. But, that reflection has been a little bit seen in the budget.
Addressing as the special guest Md. Nurul Amin said, in this budget, the health sector should be given the most attention and this is what the finance minister has done. Allocations to the health sector have been increased and a lump sum of TK 10,000 crore has been set aside to address corona crisis.
He said apart from this, the allocation in the agriculture sector has also been increased in this budget as compared to the previous budget. He said that the implementation of the proposed budget requires the cooperation of all.
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Shams Mahmud said that this year is actually the year of survival. Survival should be everyone's goal, not profit.
He opined that the wheel of the economy should be kept moving for this purpose. Shams Mahmud further said that the target of 51% revenue collection has been set in this budget.
But the private sector has not yet been fully opened. He is skeptical about whether it would be possible to achieve the revenue collection target in this situation.
