Legitimising black money failed to yield any benefit in the past: Inu

Lawmakers from treasury and opposition benches yesterday expressed dissatisfaction over slow implementation rate of development programmes, disorder in the banking sector, and keeping scope for legitimising undisclosed money.

While taking part in a general discussion on the proposed budget for 2019-20 fiscal, they also demanded for review of decision to allow whitening black money, supplementary duty tax on phone calls and import duty on smartphones.

Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal President Hasanul Haq Inu demanded scrapping of scope for whitening black money as the decision was “against the spirit of the constitution and unethical”. Such practice failed to yield any benefit in the past, he said.

He also demanded forming a commission on banking sector for bringing order in the sector. “Initiative for amending laws related to banks and merging of banks is immediately needed,” he said.

“Bangladesh Bank has legal power to control banks. Let the central bank exercise its power independently until the commission on banking is formed,” he said.

He also demanded cancellation of additional five percent supplementary duty tax on phone calls and import duty on smartphones.

“Increasing tax at source to 10 percent from five on family savings certificate will have negative impact. Imposing tax on online shopping and ride-sharing was unfortunate. These decisions should be reviewed,” he suggested.

Inu, however, praised the proposed budget, claiming that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government had announced ambitious budgets in the last 10 years and implemented them successfully.

Education Minister Dipu Moni said that education for creating more skilled manpower will be possible with allocation for the sector in the proposed budget.

She said that monthly pay order system for non-government educational institutions will be provided based on criteria set up by the ministry.

BNP lawmaker Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan was critical of some budgetary measures, saying implementation of this highly ambitious budget would be a big challenge.

He demanded unconditional release of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia for the sake of her treatment. He said that Khaleda Zia was a victim of Awami League’s vengeance, and as a result she is not getting bail.

He also demanded withdrawal of “ghost cases” filed against BNP leaders and activists across the country.

Ruling party MP Abdul Matin Khasru expressed his resentment over the failure of some ministries in implementing annual development programmes properly. The former law minister proposed to form a parliamentary committee for supervising implementation of the budget.

Treasury Bench MP Saber Hossain Chowdhury urged the government to introduce “unemployment allowance”. He also urged the government to recognise the unpaid work of women and take a step to include it in the national GDP.