The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Speakers at a dialogue expressed the view that the rate of inflation will rise during the 2008-09 fiscal as the Government will have to pay a large chunk of budgetary allocation for repaying loan interest.

The government will have to repay loan interest to the tune of Tk 11,274 crore to different national and multinational banks and agencies from the budgetary allocation. The size of interest will be around 12.6 per cent of the total budget. It is higher than the allocation in the education sector which is 12.3 per cent of the budget, they said.

The borrowings of the Government from the banks will in turn push up the unemployment rate in the country, they mentioned.

They were speaking at a post budget dialogue styled "National Budget 2008-09: Mass People Point of View" at the Jatiya Press Club yesterday. It was organised by Sushasoner Jonno Procharavizan (SUPRO), an alliance of local non-government organisations.

Lawrence Besra, Programme Coordinator of SUPRO presented the keynote paper while Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, Executive Member of SUPRO moderated the dialogue.

Terming the next budget as an 'inflationary measure', economist Prof Atiur Rahman said the government's borrowings from the central bank will promote inflationary trend while its borrowings loan from commercial banks will create unemployment problem as the banks will fail to provide loan to businessmen for investment.

He suggested that the government should come out from the trap of ' loan circle' in the long-term interest of the country.

He pointed out that the new budget has ignored the railway and renewable energy sectors.

He was critical of the government for less allocation in the health and the education sectors compared to the last year's budget.

The new budget has also failed to reflect on the political crisis now prevailing in the country, according to him.

Communist Party Bangladesh General Secretary Mojahidul Islam Selim said the national budget for the coming year proposed no measures to bring down the prices of essentials.

"The proposed budget had reflected the dictation of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other agencies," he said adding, "It would open the door of exploitation of our people."

Terming the budget anti-people, the former Army Chief Lt Gen (Retd) Mahbubur Rahman said that the budget has no participation of the representatives of the political parties.

Former MP Col (Retd) Farooq Khan said the caretaker government has opened the door of borrowing loans from banks by placing a defect budget.

"Finance Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam has failed his last examination by placing a loan dependency budget and also sown the seeds of failure for the next elected government," he noted.

AKM Jahangir Hossain, a former MP of Awami League said the government should have prioritised aspirations of the people in the new budget.

He called upon the government to introduce rationing system in the revised budget.

GM Kader of Jatiya Party (Ershad) said we shed the mentality of preparing the budget in accordance with the guideline of the donor agencies.