How is a tax-burdened budget people-oriented?

It’s all very well that the finance minister takes to the highway, but if the achievements are to be consolidated, institutional reforms have to be carried out at first. The banks, insurance companies, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the regulatory agencies are all very weak. Without fixing these, he’s taken to the highway. An accident is inevitable. Once you are on the highway, you can’t get off. The highway may even join up with an international highway. But the budget which has been announced is very ordinary. It is replete with assurances. What is needed is correct steps and procedures.

It is a massive budget, but it doesn’t seem implementable. It’s a great leap compared to the amended budget of the current fiscal. It is not as if the ability of our various institutions in implementing the budget has improved in any way. It is not possible to effectively implement the budget with the existing institutional structure.

A budget deficit is tolerable if the money is used appropriately, if there is no corruption and misuse, and if there is accountability. The budget deficit this time is going to be huge. And the burden will fall on the people’s shoulders. This is not acceptable.

The finance minister has called this an inclusive people-oriented budget. How? The budget has no mention of any initiative to implement it. How can a tax-burdened budget be people-oriented?

The simple way to increase revenue income has been to impose VAT. Will this be so easy to implement? Not all businesses can be automated. It was not right to impose VAT without carrying out reforms. The businessmen will ultimately place the entire burden on the consumers’ shoulders. This may increase the government’s earnings, but it will all be taken from the common consumers’ pockets. There has been VAT since 1991, but this time it shouldn’t have been forcefully imposed.

Instead of increasing taxes indirectly, the tax net could have been expanded. Many businessmen in the small towns do not pay tax. Then there are many people with TIN certificates who do not pay tax. NBR needs to undergo reforms to fix all of this. Instead of undertaking all this, taxes have simply been imposed on the consumers. This will give rise to all sorts of complications. Officials will go from shop to shop, and the businessmen won’t keep their books properly.

The proposed budget projects a deficit of Tk one lakh crore. This will be collected from foreign loans, saving certificates, and the banking system. With such a large deficit in the budget, all governments simply increase the debt burden. The government is resorting to all sorts of means to extract taxes from the common people, but the people are not getting the required services. Living standards aren’t improving. The advantage of the government budget is, they will spend as much as they like, and extract the money forcibly from the people. This can’t be done in a personal budget.

What capacity has suddenly appeared out of the blue that it will be possible to implement such a huge Annual Development Programme (ADP)? It is said that this will be supervised. Who will oversee it? Will the quality of work, the appropriate use of funds, be visible? When a four-year project takes eight years to implement, this is just a waste of money.

The initiative to deduct money from bank accounts is ridiculous. Such excise duty is imposed to curb any bad habits, such as cigarettes, liquor and so on. Yet here excise duty has been placed on bank accounts. It is as if there is no need to keep money in the banks.

The lower and lower middle class will bear the entire brunt of this burden. The decision to skim off money directly from the accounts cannot be justified in any way. The people will turn away from banks. It has been said that financial inclusion will be increased and transactions through banks will increase. But increasing excise duty will have an absolutely opposite effect. Associations will spring up in the villages and small towns and all the money will be channeled there.

There is allocation for education in the budget, but a big chunk of it will go to salaries, allowance and constructing buildings. There is hardly any allocation for educational equipment, laboratories, teachers’ training and such. There is no tangible initiative for qualitative improvement of education.

Only five per cent allocation has been given for the health of 16 crore people. But this is a fundamental right. If a person is healthy, he will rise above the poverty line. If he falls ill, he will drop below the poverty line. It can’t go on like this. Even African countries spend thrice the amount we do for the health of each and every citizen.

Allocation has been increased in the social security sector. But a large portion of this goes to pensions and gratuity. But there has been no increase where actual security is needed for the poor, allowances for the elderly. In other words, security is increasing for those who already have it. Nothing has been said about the poor. Alongside large projects, there is need to renovate the rural roads.

What justification can there be to use people’s money to make up for the deficit created by irregularities and inefficiencies of the state-owned banks? It amounts to irregularities being encouraged in government banks. This is the people’s money. No one has the right to squander it.

Source: Prothom Alo