6.75 pc growth target high is ambitious

Says Dr. Atiur Rahman

Staff Correspondent: The former governor of Bangladesh Bank Atiur Rahmanconsiders the target of 6.75 percent growth in the next fiscal year’s budget ambitious. He said that the inflation has been more than 9 percent for almost one and a half years. Food inflation was more than 10 percent in May. In this reality, it will not be easy to reduce the rate of inflation from 3.5 percent to 6.5 percent. To achieve this goal, there is no alternative to further reduce the budget deficit and reduce the amount of credit from the banking sector.

Dr. Atiur said the allocation of social security programs could have been more liberal considering inflation. 17.06 percent of the budget has been allocated to social security. The current year was 16.58 percent. Not all of it is for vulnerable people. Pension of officials, interest on savings certificates, allocation of various scholarships is also here. This ratio could be increased to protect marginalized citizens in challenging economic conditions. On the other hand, the public has to bear 69 percent of the total health expenditure. The allocation ratio may not have been increased considering the lack of budget implementation skills of the concerned ministries.
He said that the target of Tk 5 lakh 45 thousand crore revenue will be very challenging to implement.