Citizen’s platform urges govt not to print money, suggests deferring 5m family cards to next fiscal year
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The Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh has advised the government not to even consider printing money to finance public expenditure if it aims to control inflation, while also recommending that the distribution of five million family cards for beneficiary selection be deferred to the next fiscal year rather than the current one.
The call came from a media briefing titled “Point of Departure of the New Government: Economic Review,” arranged by the platform on Thursday in the capital.
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and convener of the platform presided over the event.
Professor Mustafizur Rahman, another CPD distinguished fellow and core group member of the platform, spoke at the event following the keynote presented by Towfiqul Islam Khan, Additional Research Director of the CPD.
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said that the country’s debt situation had been left in a more fragile condition than what the interim government had inherited, urging the new administration to pursue cautious macroeconomic and fiscal measures to restore stability.
He said that the interim administration had already faced a difficult debt position, which deteriorated further due to weak revenue mobilisation, inability to control operating expenditure and lack of alignment in Annual Development Programme implementation.
He stressed that foreign agreements signed during the interim period, including port-related deals, should be reviewed.
He further called for demonstrating the rule of law through legal accountability of ministers and members of parliament, alongside disclosure of conflicts of interest.
Since attaining lower-middle-income country (LMIC) status, concessional loans have declined towards Bamgladesh, said Professor Mustafizur Rahman.
He said that the repayment period for the Rooppur project and other infrastructure projects are beginning, which will increase debt-servicing obligations in near future.
“Previously, external debt was assessed as a percentage of GDP, but the IMF has moved away from that approach. It is now evaluated based on foreign-exchange reserves and repayment capacity,” Mustafizur Rahman said.
Presenting the keynote, Towfiqul Islam Khan identified fragile macroeconomic stability, weak private investment and employment and rapidly shrinking fiscal space as major problems inherent in the new government that would emerge as major challenges for the near future.
He called for a credible and realistic national budget framework for the next fiscal year, backed by stronger revenue mobilisation, disciplined expenditure management, effective deficit control and reprioritisation toward high-impact sectors.
Without aligning the existing budget with economic realities, achieving fiscal stability would be difficult, he warned.