Cross-party MPs for budgetary redress
Step's to address the rising inequality should get priority in the upcoming budget otherwise the masses will be deprived of the benefits of the current steady economic growth, said the All-Party Parliamentary Group.
Addressing a pre-budget dialogue at state guesthouse Padma in Dhaka on Sunday, the cross-party forum of parliamentarians which monitors events in Bangladesh also emphasised ensuring good governance and imposing progressive tax on the rich.
“The high economic growth is not adequately benefiting a large part of the people because of the rising inequality where the Gini index increased by 0.93 percent from 2010 to 2016,” said TIM Zahid Hossain, senior policy adviser to the group.
In Bangladesh, the income of some five percent of the population equals to that earned by the rest which indicates an uneven distribution of wealth, he said while presenting a keynote paper.
Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, chairman of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation, also recommended taking initiatives to reduce the income inequality.
“If we cannot reduce income inequality, then a higher per capita income and higher GDP growth rate will not make any sense to the people,” he said.
The group said the per capita income and the Gini coefficient were increasing at the same pace in Bangladesh, meaning the growth was accelerating income inequality.
It said the income inequality resulted from a combination of the inability to widen the tax net, impose progressive tax and increase government expenditure on education, health, rural development and social protection.
According to a finance ministry study, 45-65 percent of assets in Bangladesh’s economy were yet to be brought under the tax net.
Agriculture Minister Md Abdur Razzaque said focus must be enhanced on collecting more direct tax rather than indirect tax.
“We are at a very lower level in collecting tax. Even Nepal’s tax-GDP ratio is higher compared to that of Bangladesh,” he added.
Education Minister Dipu Moni also emphasised on collecting a higher amount of direct tax, saying that the National Board of Revenue should broaden the tax net to reduce the burden on the masses.
Planning Minister MA Mannan, Senior Secretary to General Economics Division Prof Shamsul Alam, State Minister for Youth and Sports Md Zahid Ahsan Russel, and State Minister for LGRD Swapan Bhattacharjee were present.
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