Opposition MPs censure proposed budget at House
Opposition lawmakers yesterday censured the proposed budget, especially for keeping scope for whitening undisclosed money, while members of the treasury bench hailed it.
The two sides came face to face while taking part in the discussion on proposed budget for 2019-20 fiscal year at the parliament.
Awami League lawmaker Abdus Salam Murshedi said the proposed budget was good for countrymen as well as businessmen.
“Keeping scope of whitening undisclosed money in the real estate sector was a timely and positive step,” he said, adding that the sector will get a boost as a result of the decision.
“You cannot have development keeping money idle,” said Salam.
About an hour later, Jatiya Party MP Rowshan Ara Mannan censured the government for the proposal.
She alleged that the government has kept the scope to legalise undisclosed money in favour of the rich black money holders.
About the top 300 loan defaulters’ names disclosed in parliament, she said names of many large loan defaulters were missing on the list, as they managed to keep their names off the list through High Court stay orders.
“The government is interested in taking credit of a large-scale budget, but are not that interested to recover defaulted loans,” she said.
She urged the finance ministry to not increase Vat on e-commerce, as it will affect online businesses. She also urged not to increase tax at source on family savings certificates.
Jatiya Party MP Sayed Abu Hossain said banks are facing liquidity crisis as the government is taking loan from banks. He also demanded cancellation of additional five percent supplementary duty tax on phone calls.
“Review the decision, as general people did not take it positively,” he proposed.
“There are some inconsistencies in the budget,” ruling Awami League MP Tofail Ahmed said, urging the prime minister and finance minister to find those.
Tofail, however, did not mention the inconsistencies, and termed the proposed budget “very good”.
Tofail and other senior Awami League MPs -- including Amir Hossain Amu, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali and Afsarul Ameen -- discussed Awami League’s history and its contribution to the nation at length, as the party celebrated its 70th founding anniversary yesterday.
State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid urged Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal to review his plan to make Tax Identification Numbers mandatory to avail power connections.
He proposed to make TIN mandatory for consumers using above 500 units of electricity.
Gonoforum lawmaker Sultan Muhammed Mansur said a vested quarter is trying to push Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to a “point of no return”.
He, however, did not elaborate on what he meant.
Mansur said the December 30 general election might be another controversial one like January 5, 2014 general election, if he did not join the parliament. He said BNP MPs might have followed his example by joining the House.
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