South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) and the School of Business and Economics (SBE), of North South University jointly organized a webinar titled: “Economic Growth during COVID 19 and the Role of Budget 2021-22” on Thursday to discuss the challenges in the formulation and implementation of Bangladesh National Budget 2021-22 during the coronavirus pandemic, said a press release.
Minister of PlanningMuhammad Abdul Mannan attended the webinar as chief guest while M. A. Kashem, Chairman, Board of Trustees, North South University attended as special guests. Distinguished economists, development practitioners, academicians, students, and journalists were present among other participants.
While speaking at the webinar, Muhammad Abdul Mannan said, “There is no alternative to deficit budget for developing countries and over the years Bangladesh has strengthened its capacity to deal with deficits.”
He also stated that unfortunately, the issue of corruption within the bureaucracy is still there. However, he assured the participants that this issue is under Prime Minister’s consideration and she is working to bring reforms in the bureaucracy. He also emphasized for doing reforms in land regulation of the country.
Professor Atiqul Islam, the VC of North South University chaired the event and said that the government should properly identify the informal sector workers and help them to restore their livelihoods that they lost amid the pandemic.
Dr. Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) said that the budget did not emphasize on creating an investment-friendly environment as only tax relief won’t stimulate foreign investment. He demanded enhancing the social safety net to increase aggregate demand which will ultimately increase production and employment.
Dr. Nazneen Ahmed, Senior Research Fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) said that the 2021-22 budget indeed prioritized the health sector but that’s not enough. She also said that more attention should be given for implementing the health budget through timely utilization of the allocated funds rather than imposing frequent lockdowns.
Dr. Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman, Professor and Advisor of SIPG addressed the inefficiencies of bureaucracy in budget implementation and said “The bureaucracy is suffering from the Uncertainty Avoidance Syndrome and only political commitment is needed to improve the current situation.”
Dr. Mohammad Abu Eusuf, Professorof Development Studies, Dhaka University addressed the 2021-22 National Budget as a business-friendly budget but opined that it only addressed the supply side of the market. He also recommended that the 15% VAT on the profit of the private universities must be lifted off as by definition these are non-profit institutions.
The event started with the welcome speech of Professor Tawfique M Haque, Director of SIPG and Chairman of the Department of Political Science and Sociology, NSU. Prof. Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, Dean of the School of Business and Economics (SBE), NSU moderated the webinar.
