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Bangladesh commemorated its 53rd anniversary of independence on Tuesday with much fervor and zeal. The celebration included paying tribute to the freedom fighters with due solemnity, and reiteration of its socio-economic progress and commitment to transform the country into a developed and prosperous Smart Bangladesh by 2041.
One cannot deny the importance of marching forward towards development goals with steely determination. With economic development, it's believed, the country would become a far better place to live and poverty and hunger would become a thing of the past, and all would enjoy basic needs like housing, education, healthcare, and clothing.
The impressive vision of creating a Smart Bangladesh further paints the country as a glamorous place to live in the future. But amidst these high hopes and celebration of developmental milestones, food insecurity, growing income inequality, pervasive corruption at an epidemic level, and persistent lawlessness are present. And that is perplexing, worrying, and unacceptable.
The country's economy and development are on the up and up, but some vital colours are missing from its tapestry. The growth rate alone does not tell the entire story. Income distribution is heavily skewed with more wealth going to those who have already too much, similar to feeding the well-fed. For example, despite the country achieving a robust GDP growth rate averaging 6.5 per cent per year over the last decade, the latest survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) revealed that 37.7 million Bangladeshis suffered from moderate to severe food insecurity in 2023. This means one in every five households suffered food insecurity last year and 1.477 million people experienced it at its very worst. They skipped meals, had less to eat and worried about not having food for the following day. Having food in the stomach is far more important than growth rate statistics.
The BBS study indicates the surge in inflation over the past two years has sent food prices spiraling skywards and exacerbated food insecurity. Perhaps the most widely discussed subject over the last two years has been the rising cost of living and the hardship faced by the poor and people in lower income brackets. Prices of the bare essentials and medicine have risen abnormally. All modes of transportation costs, too, have significantly escalated.
Making matters even worse, the government kept raising the tariffs of all utility services from time to time under the pretext of reducing subsidies. It seems the government's effort to adhere to the IMF's prescription has exacerbated the situation for the poor. The government at times may have to take unpopular measures to manage the economy. But how can the people remain afloat when there is no control over the prices of essentials? Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali thinks inflation is not the people's main concern. But his observation does not help or even give hope to the people in dire straits. It rather suggests the leaders are happy with the sordid state of escalating living costs, as it does not affect them directly.
To help address the growing food insecurity, experts recommend widening and strengthening social safety net programs and introducing school meal initiatives. The dismal record of revenue collection, however, limits the government's capacity to go for large-scale welfare programs. Low revenue earning also means that tax dodgers are having a field day. In spite of the expansion of the economy and enviable economic growth, domestic revenue, especially from direct taxation of the emerging affluent, has remained stagnant. Shockingly, 87 percent of the wealthy and upper-middle-class citizens evade income tax altogether. The poor and low-income earners cannot be blamed for the fallout of that incompetence, but they are paying the price.
Amid poor revenue collection, a plethora of ambitious development projects have been implemented. These projects, funded by both domestic and foreign loans, have been plagued by time and cost overruns due to faulty project design and planning, irregularities, and corruption. Consequently, the government is burdened with escalating debt repayment obligations. In the first eight months of the current fiscal year (July-February), foreign debt repayments surged by 43 per cent to the tune of $2.03 billion, with interest payments doubling that of the corresponding period of the last year.
This grim reality underscores the urgent need to address the root causes of this economic crisis by enhancing direct taxation on the affluent and curbing corruption, inefficiency, and mismanagement. However, instead of pursuing these vital reforms, the government burdened the common people with increased financial obligations by frequently raising utility chargers. These policies have only exacerbated inequality by jettisoning the interest of the low- and middle-income poor.
Meanwhile, corruption continues to impede the implementation of pro-poor policies. In recent years, to its credit, the government has ramped up the sale of essential goods at subsidized rates to aid the poor. But much of the allocated resources are allegedly misappropriated. To effectively combat corruption and ensure proper delivery of services to the poor, it is necessary to increase accountability, monitoring, vigilance, and execute the law no matter who is guilty.
The government cannot and must not disregard the plight of millions grappling with food insecurity under the false assumption that their purchasing power has increased. The needs of the people must be addressed more sincerely with greater sensitivity and humanity. The poorer sections of society are at breaking point and cannot take any more pressure from the erratic market behaviour and government policies that seem to ignore them or show little concern for their needs.
The country has progressed well in different socio-economic indices. But it still has a long way to go to establish a welfare state by ensuring distributive justice and a just social order that the architects of independent Bangladesh had envisaged. Get that right first and then the nation will be on the right road to a Smart Bangladesh and a Sonar Bangla.