Govt sincere in handling economic issues: Mannan

Staff Correspondent: Planning Minister MA Mannan has said the presentgovernment is very much sincere in handling the on-going economic issuesarising out of the current global condition.
“So, economics is a very important issue and you can’t get panicked aboutit,” he said.
The Planning Minister said this while addressing a roundtable discussion onnational budget for the next fiscal year (FY23) organised by the Institute ofCost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB) held yesterday evening at ICMAB Ruhul Quddus Auditorium in the city’s Nilkhet area, said a pressrelease yesterday. Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury spokeat the programme as special guest while Dr. Zaid Bakht, chairman of AgraniBank Ltd and Professor Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellow of Centre forPolicy Dialogue (CPD), were present as guests of honor.
Mentioning that the government has an eye on the marginalized people, Mannansaid they could not control the market because of the practice of itseconomy. “We’re working to reduce the cruelty of the market economy as muchas possible by accepting its reality.”
The Planning Minister also noted that stability and continuity of thegovernment are essential for economic development.
ICMAB President Md. Mamunur Rashid presided over the programme while itsSeminar and Conference Committee Chairman AKM Delwer Hussain delivered thewelcome speech.

Abu Sayed Md. Shaykhul Islam, council member and former President of ICMAB,moderated the session and Md. Munirul Islam offered the vote of thanks.Secretary of ICMAB AKM Kamruzzaman presented the key-note paper on thenational budget for FY23.

The budget is not only a sheet of income and expenditure, Muslim Chowdhurysaid, adding: “At present, there is more transparency in the budgetformulation than ever before. The national budget is only a segment of publicfinancial management and it is one-fourth of the total public financialmanagement issues.”

He mentioned that the government has limitations in resources as on average,over 30 percent of country’s GDP is invested where 24 percent comes from theprivate sector while the remaining eight percent from the government.

Speakers at the event advocated for lowering the corporate tax rate in linewith competing countries as well as demanded of the government for having aconsistent tax policy to bring the private investors under confidence.

They said it is also necessary to restructure the tax rates of the individualtax payers to give a relief to the low income group.

Considering the on-going inflation scenario, the participants suggested thatthe government should find out the ways to keep the mid-income group in acomfort zone.

The speakers said income generating development projects should be completedas early as possible avoiding time overrun and cost overrun while thosedevelopment projects could be deferred which would not generate any incomefor the government in near future.