JS- 04 Proposed budget to turn country into a developed nation by 2041: Lawmakers

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JS- 04

BUDGET-DISCUSSION

Proposed budget to turn country into a developed nation by 2041: Lawmakers

SANGSAD BHABAN, June 19, 2018 (BSS) – Lawmakers participating in the national budget discussion today said the proposed national budget for 2018-19 fiscal not only would turn the country into a middle income one and developed nation by 2041.

At the same time, they said the mega budget also playing a significant role by maintaining the continuity of development under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Taking part in the general discussion on the budget discussion in the house, Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury said the proposed budget has reflected the peoples expectation ahead of the upcoming national election.”We have materialized the goals of the middle income country and now we are working for building the country into a developed nation by 2041,” said the minister.

Around 65 lakh people have been provided jobs in the country and 51 lakh people were provided jobs in abroad during tenure of the ruling Awami League, she added.

Abdus Shahid said the mega budget would help turn the country into a middle income by 2021 and also be a developed nation by 2041.

Terming the proposed budget for education sector, the senior ruling party leader said the government has proposed over Taka 50,000 crore for the education sector and proper utilization of the budget would help eliminate all the anomalies from the education sector.

Criticizing the proposed budget, opposition Jatiya Party lawmaker Kazi Feroz Rashid said “The proposed budget has no political philosophy and it has no touch of the political philosophy of the ruling Awami League.

Kazi Firoze regretted that Father of the Nation Bangabandhu fought his entire life against 22 families of Pakistan and proposed budget would patronise 22000 families in sovereign Bangladesh while the poorer 10 per cent of the people are getting poorer.

He was also critical of the government for proposing imposition of tax on the people who are earning Taka 2,50,000 a year, adding that it will affect the poor people at large and urged the government to exempt upto Taka 3,00,000 from the purview of tax.

Terming the proposed budget as the pro welfare one, Colonel (retd) Faruque Khan said the BNP government during their regime in 2006 had earmarked only Taka 373 crore for social safety net programme while the ruling Awami League has earmarked Taka 64,656 crore in the proposed budget which is 20 times more than that time.

Even the proposed budget has also fulfilled the election manifesto of the Awami League, he said almost 90 per cent election manifestoes have already been fulfilled through all the budgets since 2009-10 fiscal.

In 2006, the BNP earmarked Taka 5,500 crore for agriculture credit and rural development while the ruling party has earmarked Taka 21,000 crore for the sector, Khan said.

In 2006, peoples life expectancy was only 65 years but now it has reached to 72 years, poverty rate was 38.4 per cent and now it declined to 24.3 per cent and literacy rate was 52.3 per cent and now it has increased to 71 per cent, said the former minister.

Ruling party senior lawmaker Rafiqul Islam Bir Uttam highlighted the salient features of the proposed national budget and urged the finance minister to raise the allocation in education, health and social safety net further so that common people and children in general could be more benefitted.

Treasury bench members Shamsul Haq Tuku, Motahar Hossain, Bir Bahadur Ushwe Singh, AKMA Awal Saidur Rahman, Begum Sanjida Khanam, opposition lawmakers Begum Khorshed Ara Haq, Altaf Ali, also took part in the general discussion on budget.

On June 7, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith placed a Taka 4,645.73 billion national budget for 2018-19 fiscal setting the GDP growth target at 7.8 percent and detailing a set of programmes to transform the country into a role model of modern and welfare state by 2041.

Earlier, the lawmakers paid rich tributes to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members who were assassinated on August 15, 1975 and all martyred during the War of Liberation in 1971.

BSS/OG/QC/2045 HRS