Muhith worried over losses in state firms

Rising losses of state enterprises have become a matter of serious concern, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said yesterday.
"I realised this year that the loss is a serious item," he said, suggesting the next government should pay high attention to the enterprises.
The minister also said such losses put a huge pressure on the budget.
Muhith made the remark after a former adviser to a caretaker government, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, shared his concern about the enterprises.
They spoke at a discussion on the proposed budget for the next fiscal year organised by Economic Reporters' Forum at Cirdap auditorium in the capital.
Islam said there is no guideline on how to address the skyrocketing losses of the state firms.
The former adviser also said some of the targets set in the proposed budget may not be achieved.
Political uncertainty, weak administrative capacity and inefficiency in implementing the budget are the main challenges, according to Islam.
He said the tax authority will fall short of the revenue target for the outgoing fiscal year and predicted that the total revenue collection would be around Tk 106,000 crore against the target of Tk 112,259 crore.
So, the National Board of Revenue will have to collect 28 percent higher revenue to meet the target of Tk 136,090 crore set for the next fiscal year, he added.
He said the reduced allocation for agriculture would hurt the rural people and the economy.
Muhith said there have been criticisms that the projections made in the budget are very high. "But I don't want to term the budget ambitious."
On the reduced allocation for the farm sector, the minister said the government provides support to the sector through policy measures. "We have increased the outlay for agricultural research."
Muhith said the allocation for public administration has gone up due to the upcoming parliamentary election, which, according to him, has a huge expenditure.
TIM Nurul Kabir, secretary general of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh, said a number of issues related mainly to taxes remain unresolved and have created problems for mobile operators.
He demanded withdrawal of SIM tax and said the NBR should let the telecom operators amortise their spectrum fees as allowable expenditure.
Muhith said the unresolved issues in the telecom sector would be addressed soon.