Indicating that the size of the upcoming national budget will not be very large, Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed on Wednesday said the interim government will prioritize social safety net programme and automation of National Board of Revenue (NBR) in the next budget.
However, there will be efforts to expand trade and commerce to increase people's income, he said at a pre-budget view exchange meeting with editors and senior journalists of different print and electronic media in the Finance Ministry conference room at the Secretariat in Dhaka.
He also assured that the next elected government will not be able to throw out the next budget to be presented by the interim government.
Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser for Finance Dr Anisuzzaman Chowdhury was present in the event while Finance Secretary Dr Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder, Financial Institutions Division Secretary Najma Mubarek, Financial Express Editor Shamsul Huq Zahid, Jugantor Editor Abdul Hai Shikder, Khoborer Kagoj Editor Mostafa Kamal, Somoyer Alo acting editor Syed Shahnewaz Karim and different print, electronic and online media correspondents also spoke in the meeting.
The Finance Adviser said allowances in the social security sector will be increased from the current one.
"We will make the next budget realistic. We will try to expand business and commerce in the private sector. We will look into the issue of taxes," the Adviser said.
He said, "Various issues including inflation, employment, social safety net, children's education are coming up in the budget. We will not increase the size of the budget unnecessarily. The size of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) will also not be very big.
But we will try to reduce several issues such as inflation, at the same time we will increase income and expand employment in the private sector."
Salehuddin Ahmed said, "We must keep in mind the impact of the budget in advance. Earlier, it was said that we would do this and that, but ultimately that would not happen. We will keep that in mind."
"Earlier, the budget speech used to be 200-300 pages. I said that the budget speech would not be more than 50-60 pages. That will be short, he added.
He also said, "Many are talking a lot about the development of developing countries. We have decided that we will prepare for this."
The Finance Adviser said, "We will increase some allowances in the social security sector. The allocation for social security programmes, education and information technology will increase."
When asked what decision will be made on the tax-free income limit of an individual, he said, he will tell us about it later.
Earlier, in his closing speech at the exchange of views, the Adviser said, "We want an equality-based and welfare-oriented budget.
Our time is short, we will try to implement some of the budget during this time. We will not be able to focus on medium and long-term issues in the budget. Because this is not our mandate."
He said, "The social security programme is under attention, we will increase the amount of allowances in it. We will not be able to avoid graduation (development of developing countries). We will not go, but this is not a very good attitude. Five to six more countries are looking at us."
Stating that the tax system must be automated, the Adviser said that in no country in the world do taxpayers go to the tax office.
Salehuddin Ahmed also said that the budget will be announced in early June.
Jugantor Editor Abdul Hai Shikder said effective steps should be taken in the budget to control inflation and at the same time, social security programmes should be increased. TCB programmes and products should be increased, and rationing should be introduced, he proposed. He also proposed to bring inflation to below 7 per cent.
