Achieving such high growth requires integrated transition in all areas of the economy, which is difficult but not impossible. In the last financial year, the GDP growth rate has been 7.2 per cent, indicating high growth potential, said the leaders of ICAB in the post budget press conference, held Saturday.
Thery said the budget is ambitious; as a result, efficiency, transparency and accountability are essential for implementation, which we believe is possible under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) MahmudulHasanKhusru FCA made the remarks while addressing press conference on National Budget 2021 organised by ICAB by online Zoom application.
Md. ShahadatHossain FCA, Council Member-ICAB and SnehasishBarua FCA jointly delivered the conference paper while Md. HumayunKabir FCA moderated the programme.
ICAB President said that the budget deficit for the fiscal year 2021-22 is the biggest deficit in the history of the country due to low revenue collection during the ongoing global epidemic. The budget deficit is 6.20 percent of the total GDP.
“We think that government spending will have to increase even if we borrow now , to keep the economy vibrant. Government spending should be increased in all sectors where domestic products and services are used. As a result, employment in the country and the flow of money to the people will increase”, he added.
He said extensive economic activities are needed to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 epidemic on the economy and increase investment to create jobs for the unemployed. The reality is that as long as the Covid-19 epidemic is in the country, there will be no significant investment and no increase in employment.
Therefore, according to the government's plan to revive the economy, 80 percent of the population must be vaccinated at any cost. Eradicating the coronavirus is the number one challenge.
“We feel that there is a need to increase allocate in the social security sector considering the fact that a large number of people in the country are falling below the poverty line due to general holidays, lockdowns, job cut in manufacturing companies, shut down business activities at different times due to Covid-19 global epidemic”, Khasru added.
Although the supplementary budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 has been reduced by five per cent, it can be inferred from the updated implementation of the said budget that it may not be possible to meet the supplementary budget in the end. ICAB opines that proposed budget for the financial year 2021-22, proposed to reduce the tax rate of one person company by 25%, which is reasonable. It has also proposed to reduce the tax rate of listed companies from 25 per cent to 22.50 per cent and for non-listed companies from 32.50 per cent to 30.00 per cent, which is commendable. ICAB has been proposing this for a long time.
Low-income people are more likely to use MFS services; As a result, this coverage will hinder the poor population from financial inclusion which could have a negative impact on overall digitization.
ICAB leaders mentioned that the present government is relentlessly trying to integrate the marginalized and disadvantaged people of the country into the mainstream of society and economy which will help ensure employment, quality of life and social and economic security for people of transgender and people with disabilities.
“The budget proposes tax breaks for cloud services, system integration, e-learning platforms, e-book publishing, mobile application development services and IT freelancing providers until 2024”, President said.
