Formulate pro-people budget

The bureaucratic system in the country needs to be dismantled, and the people need to be empowered to prepare a people-friendly budget, said speakers at a seminar yesterday.

The seminar, titled "Budget and Thoughts of Youth Society," was organised by Bangladesh Jubo Union at Jatiya Press Club.

"The syndicate of dishonest bureaucrats, politicians, and businessmen must be dismantled. For this purpose, the leftist forces must be united," said economist Prof MM Akash.

Prof Akash, also a teacher of Economics Department at Dhaka University, said, "There is a need for public involvement in this movement. Only then, we can have a pro-people budget."

Towfiqul Islam Khan, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said the government cannot meet many deficits in the budget, as the taxes paid by the people do not largely reach the government.

It is important to find out how much of the expenditure is being used for the people, he added.

Monowar Mostafa, general secretary of Democratic Budget Movement, said there was no scope for democratic speech in the budget. "This is done in such secrecy that there is no involvement of the common people," he added.

The speakers emphasised the necessity of formulating a pro-people and work-oriented budget to create self-employment for the youth.

They noted that the National Youth Policy 2017 has not given enough attention to youth employment generation and called for training for human resource development.