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The national budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22) needs to focus more on equity and redistributive justice as well as protecting jobs and saving lives, argues a leading think-tank of the country on Monday.
The think-tank also argued that there should be less focus on economic growth in the upcoming budget which will be presented in the national parliament on Thursday afternoon.
“Attaining a high GDP growth should not be what the budget for FY22 should set its target on,” said the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). “Rather, the budget should be one of redistribution, particularly addressing the underlying factors driving rising inequality.”
CPD made the argument in a virtual press briefing on the State of the Bangladesh Economy in FY2020-21 on Monday morning.
CPD paper, presented in the briefing, also mentioned that although the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has not yet released the final GDP growth data for FY20 and provisional estimates for FY2021, it is likely to be lower than the target despite positive growth in the per capita income.
“For a change, the budget should set targets as regards employment and growth in income at the household level rather than GDP growth or per capita income,” the think-tank argued.
In the third week of May, Planning Minister M A Mannan unveiled that per capita income recorded at US$ 2,227 in the current fiscal year against US$ 2,064 in FY20. Both the figures are, however, provisional estimates.
The country’s GDP at the current price has also increased to Tk 30.87 trillion in the current fiscal year from Tk 27.97 trillion in FY20, according to the primary data.
GDP at current or market price in a year, however, doesn’t reflect the advancement of the economy in real terms and also not comparable with previous years. GDP growth is usually estimated in constant price.
Earlier, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal expressed optimism that the economy would grow by 7.40 per cent in the current fiscal year (FY21).
Due to Covid-19, the country’s GDP recorded at 5.24 per cent in FY20 which was significantly lower than a record high of 8.15 per cent growth rate in FY19.