Safeguards needed to protect vulnerable people under IMF-backed reforms: CPD
Staff Reporter :
Eminent economist, Distinguished Fellow of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said, Low-income and limited-earning families experienced significant erosion of purchasing power amid high and rising prices of essential commodities.
Considering the data from the last three Household Income and Expenditure Survey, Dr Debapriya said that, urban income inequality experienced a significant increase by 8.23 per cent in last six years which mainly fueled by rural-urban migration.
Even in rural areas, income and consumption inequality increased significantly from 2010 to 2016 but showed a slight decline from 2016 to 2022. He, however, noted that data on wealth inequality was not available.
Dr Debapriya was speaking at an event jointly organized by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre on Monday.
Debapriya Bhattacharya said ”When the IMF goes to a country with their programme, it establishes a singular authority over economic management”.
The government should implement the IMF programme-stipulated reforms and policy steps by taking the inequality concerns into cognizance and in consultation with disadvantaged groups, he added.
He alarmed, inequality has increased in countries which have taken loans under the IMF’s conditions.
Dr Debapriya emphasized, to generate more revenue property tax and inheritance tax are more potential sources of additional tax collection along with raising direct taxes.
Apart from this, addressing the inter-sectoral disparity of ADP allocation, he remarked that,for coming FY’24, about 22% of the ADP has been allocated to different physical infrastructure sectors which depicts the marginalization of human development
and social security-related safety. He suggested that replacing the current austerity measures by the government, incremental resource allocation to the disadvantaged population should be prioritize.
“The IMF is not a factor while preparing our budget and we’re not dependent on them. We prepare our budget in line with our demands,” Planning Minister MA Mannan said at the same dialogue.
The program was moderated by CPD board of trustee Adv Sultana Kamal while former MP Barrister Rumin Farhana, distinguished fellow of CPD Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of CPD Fahmida Khatun and others spoke at the dialogue.
