Ambitious, unrealistic

Barely hours after Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury placed the country’s largest-ever budget before parliament, opposition parties took to the streets and the airwaves to denounce the Tk 9.38 trillion proposal as deficit-heavy, debt-dependent and skewed in favour of the wealthy.

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami was the most
visible in its dissent, with the party’s Dhaka North and South city units staging protest marches in the capital on Thursday evening.

The party has also called a press conference for Friday morning at its central office in Moghbazar, where senior leaders will formally present Jamaat’s position on the proposed budget.

Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Hamidur Rahman Azad offered a pointed critique, describing the budget as excessively deficit-driven and debt-reliant despite its record size.

“A large budget does not mean a good budget,” he said. “There is no clear reflection of people-oriented reform or economic transformation in this proposal.”

He argued that the revenue collection target of over Tk 6 lakh crore was unrealistic, and that no effective road map existed to achieve it. “Ambitious revenue targets have been set before, but a practical path to achieving them is absent – again.”

Azad said nearly 70 per cent of the total budget would be consumed by operating expenses, salaries and interest payments, leaving development spending underfunded by comparison.

He also criticised the social safety net expansion as more political than purposeful. “There is no shortage of rhetoric for the poor, but specific action plans and implementation strategies are absent from this budget,” he said.

He reserved particular criticism for what he called the budget’s unequal tax treatment. “A millionaire and a rickshaw puller pay the same VAT on a bottle of water. That inequality is embedded in this tax structure, and this budget does nothing to fix it.”

JSD: Middle Class and Small Traders Will Bear the Burden
The Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) echoed similar concerns in a joint statement issued Thursday afternoon by party president A S M Abdur Rab and general secretary Shahid Uddin Mahmud Swapan.

While acknowledging the need to expand the tax base, the JSD leadership warned that the process should not place disproportionate pressure on small traders, low-income earners and the middle class.

The party called for strong action against tax evasion, illegal capital flight and undisclosed assets as the foundation of a fair and accountable tax system.

“The proposed budget, while emphasising revenue growth, lacks a clear framework for addressing the rising cost of living, the employment crisis and income inequality,” their statement read.

NCP Lawmaker: Real Deficit Could Be Tk 4.5 Lakh Crore National Consensus Party (NCP) Member of Parliament Dr Atiq Mujahid was blunter still, calling the budget “highly ambitious and detached from reality” in a reaction posted on his Facebook page shortly after the announcement.

“The government claims a deficit of around Tk 2.5 lakh crore, but in reality the shortfall could approach Tk 4.5 lakh crore,” he wrote, arguing that the revenue target of Tk 6.95 lakh crore was impossible to achieve under current economic conditions.

“I believe the revenue shortfall alone could exceed Tk 2 lakh crore. By that measure, this could go down as one of the largest deficit budgets in Bangladesh’s history.”

The Ganatantrik Juktofront also rejected the budget as unrealistic in a joint statement Thursday, zeroing in on its reliance on domestic and foreign borrowing to plug the Tk 2.5 lakh crore deficit. “This will create pressure on the economy in the future,” their leaders warned.

The front criticised the absence of any concrete strategy for job creation, and alleged that education, health, agriculture and other welfare sectors had once again been neglected.

They also flagged the continuation of provisions allowing undisclosed money to be whitened – a practice they described as constitutionally questionable – and called on the government to abandon policies favouring the wealthy and the bureaucracy in favour of a genuinely pro-people budget.

“Direct taxes have been reduced for the affluent class, but the burden of indirect taxes on ordinary citizens has not been eased,” their statement said.

The Finance Ministry had not formally responded to the opposition criticism by the time of publication. Jamaat’s full official position is expected to be outlined at Friday’s press conference at 11:30am.