DHAKA, June 8, 2020 (BSS) – Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) today placed a Taka 13,96,600 crore alternative budget for the fiscal 2020-21 (FY21) amid at tackling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and building Bangladesh with the spirit of the Liberation War.
“This is expansionary budget. To tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, budget should be expansionary. The amount of the budget is around 55 percent of GDP and it is a rapidly expansionary large budget” said BEA president Prof Dr Abul Barakat while placing the budget at an online press conference here.
Barakat read out the budget proposal styled “Free from catastrophe of COVID-19 and Building Bangladesh with the Spirit of the Liberation War”.
BEA’s alternative budget is 2.47 times higher than the government’s current budget.
Out of total Taka 13,96,600 crore proposed budget, around 91 percent worth of Taka 12,61,600 crore will come from the government – 79 percent from direct tax and 21 percent from the indirect tax.
The rest amount of Taka 1,35,000 crore will come from bond market, selling savings certificates and public-private partnership.
BEA said new 21 sources have been identified in its proposed budget. Out of the 21 new sources, the government can collect Taka 2,67,340 crore from 18 sectors.
The BEA proposed to get Taka 2,15,000 crore from four newly identified sectors: Taka 80,000 crore may come from wealth tax, Taka 40,000 from tax on access profit, Taka 55,000 crore from preventing money laundering, and Taka 40,000 crore from recovering black money.
BEA proposed Taka 1,97,124 crore in the education and technology sector which is 2.48 times more than the current budgetary allocation while Taka 1,72,548 crore in the social security welfare sector which is 5.86 times more.
BEA also increased the allocation of health sector about two times and proposed to open a new division title, Department of Public Health Security. BEA Secretary General Jamaluddin Ahmed also spoke on the occasion.