Budget ignores antipoverty efforts

The budget proposed for fiscal 2009-2010 has ignored long-term development strategies, poverty cuts and local-level employment creation, speakers said yesterday.

The representatives of Equity and Justice Working Group Bangladesh (Equity BD), an alliance of rights NGOs in Bangladesh, made the observation while addressing a post-budget press conference at the National Press Club.

They criticised a proposal to widen scope of the private sector in public services such as health, education and communication. Although the proposed budget has been termed pro-poor, it is a charity approach, they said.

In a keynote paper, Syed Aminul Haque, member of Equity BD, pointed out that the government must not leave its crucial developmental measures such as rural employment to the private sector.

"Private intervention is always commercial. Such approach will create inequality and imbalance in society. The proposed budget also ignores demand of education and health sectors, which will halt development of human resources,” he added.

Each year, around two million new people are joining the workforce and this workforce without a concrete plan for employment creation will just increase social instability, Haque said.

Md Sumsuddoha, secretary general of Equity BD, said the Tk 79,000 crore revenue target is not realistic. The revenue income may run a 12-15 percent deficit, which will make the government bound to take more loans from the banking system.

“The country's ADP is completely debt-dependent. The increasing dependency on development partners will allow donors to intervene in our development planning and policies with further conditions,” he said.

The governments' allocation for debt servicing was 17 percent of revenue expenditure in fiscal 2008-09. For fiscal 2009-2010, debt servicing has been projected at 20 percent. "This sort of ambitious budget will increase the country's indebtedness," he said.

The conference was moderated by Mostofa Kamal Akhand, member of Equity BD.