Kamal lets rip at CPD for questioning GDP figure
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday ripped into the observations of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) about the country's economic growth for the just-concluded fiscal year.
"The CPD guesstimates," he said, at a virtual meeting with income tax officials.
On Sunday, the CPD raised questions over the economic growth figure of 5.24 per cent estimated by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) for fiscal 2019-20.
The obvious repercussions of the pandemic on the economy were not adequately reflected in the provisional GDP growth estimate released by the statistical agency last week, the think-tank said in its review.
Economic growth figures are used as a tool to gain leverage in politics, said CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun at a virtual press briefing on Sunday.
But Kamal said: "We did not say that we have achieved 8.2 per cent GDP growth; we said that we achieved 5.2 per cent growth based on data, not based on assumption."
"CPD could have raised questions had we said that we achieved 8.2 per cent growth rate. The whole world believes the figures we come up with. CPD may not believe the figures," he added.
The BBS estimate beat forecasts by the Washington-based multilateral lenders World Bank and International Monetary Fund that the economy would grow between 1.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent in fiscal 2019-20 for the pandemic-whiplash.
The Asian Development Bank said the Bangladesh economy would expand at 4.5 per cent while the CPD earlier projected that the GDP growth would be no more than 2.5 per cent.
"You can realise whether the economy is growing or not just by looking at rivers, canals, roads, industries and the rural economy. You don't need mathematics for this," Kamal said.
The economic figures are given based on two things: one is an assumption and the other is based on data. The BBS presents figures on various economic sectors based on data, Kamal said. Whenever a budget is around, CPD makes observations and this has been going on for a decade.
"We are the raw materials for the CPD. CPD is engaged in commerce based on the data we provide. It is their business and it is an easy business. However, whenever we said something, it turned out to be true in the end."
The finance minister alleged that CPD does not see power plants, mega projects and revenue generation.
The revenue generated in the last fiscal year almost the same as in the previous year, Kamal said.
"Fiscal 2018-19 was normal. But we faced huge challenges last fiscal year. But the revenue generation fell short by only Tk 5,000 crore from what we achieved in fiscal 2018-19. This shows how much GDP growth the country posted."
Revenue collection in fiscal 2019-20 dropped 2.26 per cent to Tk 218,406 crore because of the two-and-half-month-long countrywide general shutdown. This was the first-ever negative growth in Bangladesh's history.
At the meeting, Kamal decided to sit with income tax officials every quarter to take the stock of collections.
The meeting would see whether revenue generation is on track. If any problem is noticed and it appears that a task needs to be done, the issues would be resolved immediately, he said.
The tax administration has undertaken a raft of measures to accelerate revenue generation, said NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem.
"NBR is working on automation to stop tax dodging. We may not get results from the automation overnight, but we will get positive results."
On 25 August, NBR will roll out the much-talked electronic fiscal devices (EFDs) as part of its effort to curb evasion of value-added tax paid by customers while purchasing goods and services.
The revenue collector aims to install 100 EFDs on a pilot basis initially at businesses in Dhaka and Chattogram.
Various economic indicators in July signalled that the revenue collection target set for the current fiscal year would be achieved, Kamal said.
NBR collected Tk 12,334 crore in July against the target of Tk 19,378 crore.
Income tax brought in Tk 3,735 crore, nearly half of the Tk 7,732-crore target set for the first month of the fiscal year.
Receipts from income tax were the only positive thing in the last fiscal year: it was up 0.14 per cent at Tk 73,004 crore.
NBR would appoint officials to intensify revenue generation, said Muneem, adding that a project is being initiated to set up income tax offices in all upazilas and growth centres.
There are at least 4 crore people in the country who could pay taxes, as per NBR's estimates. It has about 40 lakh registered taxpayers but 22 lakh submitted returns in fiscal 2018-19.
"The efforts to bring the rest of the people under the tax network would continue," Muneem said.
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