Keep tax and loan defaulters out of Nat’l polls: BIDS

Staff Reporter :
Tax and loan defaulters should totally be out from participating in the upcoming national election, said Dr Binayak Sen, Director General of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), on Monday at a post-budget seminar.

He also opposed the provision for participating in the election by the defaulters through depositing 5.0 to 10 per cent of the loan.

“It should be a political commitment for the leading parties. Otherwise, the so-called institutional reform is not possible in the country,” Dr Sen said at the seminar on “National Budget 2023-24: Four Big Challenges” organised by BIDS at its office in the city.

He also suggested rationalising the subsidy structure of the government as around two per cent of the GDP is spent on it and the lion’s share of it is unnecessary.

“Some important sectors like agriculture, fertilisers and social security could be subsidised, but subsidies to the private sector don’t make any sense,” Dr Sen added.

He also remarked that though the global fuel prices have been declining, the Bangladesh government is yet to make any adjustments, it is not sustainable.

Regarding currency rate, he said, “In the light of the experience of the last one year, now is the time to decide on a single and market-based currency exchange rate.”

In his key-note paper, Policy Research Institute (PRI) Vice-Chairman Sadik Ahmed identified four major challenges- restoring macroeconomic stability, revenue collection, financing of budget subsidy prudently, and maintaining social security sector spending– for next fiscal year.

“Like the previous, the government has emphasised growth in the proposed budget too, instead of restoring stability in the macroeconomy. But, the stability in the macro-economy is the most important at the moment. The government has failed to understand the depth of the crisis of the macro-economy,” he said.

He further said that the government’s estimate of private sector investment to achieve growth is not realistic.

“Besides, the inflation rate has decreased in the last one year in different countries of the world but it is increasing in Bangladesh and the government is blaming the Russia-Ukraine war for the higher inflation rate, which is unrealistic,” he added.

“The inflation is prolonging due to the mismanagement of the controlling market system,” he observed.
Countries that have adopted demand-side measures to control inflation have managed to reduce inflation significantly, he said.