The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), leading think-tank of the country on Thursday termem the government's forecast that the country's economy would grow by 7.40 per cent in the current fiscal year (FY21) 'a highly enthusiastic projection.'
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) makes the observation at a virtual media briefing on Thursday morning.
"In anticipation of the pandemic slowing down and economic activities reviving, the government had projected a growth rate of 7.4 per cent for FY2021," said CPD. "This was a highly optimistic projection too."
CPD argued that with almost 10 months on, the key economic indicators appear to be far less promising than what was earlier projected.
"The fiscal framework continues to be weak in view of poor achievements, more specifically, both in terms of revenue mobilisation and public expenditure," it said in the paper titled CPD's Recommendations for the National Budget FY2021-22.
"Available data for the first six months of FY2021 reveal subdued performance as regards several key economic indicators," it added.
CPD, however, does not provide any growth projection for FY21 like the other international development agencies.
The think-tank also mentioned that the official GDP growth of 5.20 per cent in the past fiscal year (FY20), a pandemic year, was 'not so unsatisfactory, particularly because almost all other countries have experienced much more lower if not negative growth.'
Demanding emphasis on bank loans to meet the budget deficit, Tawfiq Islam said there is an opportunity to increase loans from banks. The banking sector has a large amount of excess liquidity. We are talking about extra expenditure, in which case if the budget deficit is high, then it would be reasonable not to hesitate to take money from the bank.
On the health sector, he said the government should not be reluctant to allocate the budget needed for the treatment of covid in the case of new units of treatment centers, ICU and in producing adequate Oxygen.
One of the worst performing departments at this moment is the health department, said the research fellow. He said there is various irregularities, corruption and buying of products at high prices in the health sector. He also emphasized for allocating enough money so that there will be no problems in buying vaccines.
Answering a question from reporters, Mostafizur Rahman said, "Now that the health sector is our priority, we have to consider how to deal with the new risks." Now growth is not the most important thing. Now without going into mega projects in a new way, we have to focus on those projects that will increase employment.
