Speaking for the party, AL Presidium Member Ataur Rahman Khan Kaiser told The Daily Star last night that the administration would have to be super cautious about implementation of the budget.

"Although the prices of essentials had begun shooting up long before its placement, the budget does not indicate how the government will rein in the spiralling prices of daily necessities," said Kaiser adding that the AL would come up with an elaborate budget reaction today.

He said there is nothing about employment generation in this budget. He said he wonders how the people with limited income would buy the essentials they need to survive.

Former agriculture minister Motia Chowdhury described the budget as highly ambitious and criticised the way it was announced through a recorded speech on radio and television.

"It is very rare that a budget for an entire fiscal has been placed without a parliament. Its [the budget's] dependency on borrowing and grants is too much. The last one too was highly ambitious but this year's looks even loftier," said Motia, also an AL presidium member.

Another senior presidium member, Tofail Ahmed, neither welcomed nor rejected the proposed budget. He observed that the government had to place the budget in hard circumstances and amid rising prices of several goods in the international market. In the final analysis, the market will reflect if it's good or bad, he noted.

"My assumption is the government has tried its best for the welfare of the country," Tofail, also a former commerce and industry minister, told a private television channel adding, "You see, a budget is always good for one and bad for another."

He welcomed the proposals for raising the duties on finished products and reducing those on raw materials. "It's good that the caretaker government has offered the garment industry a number of facilities," he added.

In reply to a query, the AL leader said according to the constitution a budget should be placed in parliament, but quite understandably it was not possible this time round. "It [the government] had no alternative to presenting the budget the way it did," he observed.

BNP reaction
Staff Correspondent

Terming the national budget for the fiscal year 2007-08 as 'acceptable on the whole', BNP Vice-president and former minister MK Anwar yesterday said there should have been steps in the budget to control the price hike of essentials.

The budget is highly ambitious but a positive one, he said.

"Many reform-oriented actions should have been taken to implement the budget," he told the reporters in his reaction to the budget.

Quick decision should be taken for money release for development projects and purchase related matters.

There is reflection of people's hope in the budget as the social safety net programmes have been expanded and the government allocated money for diesel subsidy, he said.

It is a good budget considering the present situation and now fine-tuning is needed in the fiscal policy, he added.

He however said the budget may cause inflation and price rise of essentials as prices of industrial raw materials will increase.

There is zero duty on a few items but at least 10 per cent duty would be imposed on 500 products and so prices of consumer products may increase.

He suggested that the government activate the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh to control the price hike.

He also stressed reforms in the Planning Commission, money release process by the finance ministry and coordination between the finance ministry and departments concerned.

The government should pay more attention to rein in inflation, the former minister said.