A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Bangladesh: New Budget is the Starting of Transformation of the Economy
The main spirit of the budget is always the political vision of the ruling political party. Budget is not a book of accounting of income and expenditure statement; it is a vision of the nation or political parties.
by Swadesh Roy-Jun 20, 2017
( June 20, 2017, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) The
government has totally failed to convince the people about the national
budget 2017-18. It may be said now that the government had not any
preparation to make the people understand about that portion of the
budget which is directly related to the daily life of the people; even
it also may be said that, their finance ministry, information ministry
even the parliament members didn’t perform any groundwork on how they
would try to make the people understand regarding the characteristics of
this budget. How it is good for the country, why it is a new type of
budget in our history, and why the government has proposed this budget
which is almost a new type comparing to the previous should have been
circulated properly by the government.
The budget proposed by the government is not only the biggest budget of
the history of the country but also a budget for a new economy of
Bangladesh. From this budget, Bangladesh will start its self-dependent
economy. To reach from a lower middle-income group country to a
middle-income group country, it is absolutely a transformation of the
economy of the country. What is that transformation of the economy? This
budget is the starting point of that transformation; because, if the
country wants to reach the middle-income group, the economy should be
near hundred percent self-dependent. Many of the foreign aid will be cut
off then. So, country’s own source of wealth will be the main source of
the budget. That is why all kinds of direct and indirect taxes will be
one of the main sources of wealth of any budget.
The per capita income of the people is now 1624 US dollar but inequality
is high. So, it is the time to increase per capita income and reduce
the gap of inequality. Increasing per capita income is easier than
reducing the gap of inequality. But, to build up a balanced economy, it
has to be done proportionally and simultaneously. Reducing the gap of
inequality in the economy is a must. In this position, the national
budget has to be visionary, optimistic and its method of taxation will
have to be very much calculative. Besides, the government has to pay a
foreign debt in a large scale which will help the country to come out
from the `net of the foreign debt’ rapidly. In this condition, the
country has to pay a huge amount of money through foreign exchange,
sometimes for this cause, the economy may fall in a deficiency of
foreign exchange. To recover this shortage of foreign exchange, the
country should take two policies simultaneously; firstly, the economic
strategy basically the taxation policy should be conservative for
importing luxurious goods. Imposing high duty on importing luxurious
goods, the government has to create one kind of indirect block for
importing those goods. Then luxurious goods importing will be reduced.
So, its price will go high, but it will not hamper the lifestyle of
upper middle class and the upper class because of their high-income
level. But, the country will import those less which will eventually
make foreign exchange spend less for importing commodity. Secondly, the
government has to take a priority-based action for foreign direct
investment. The government has to give many facilities and will have to
make many infrastructures rapidly aimed at foreign direct investment.
This budget has both the policies. Even, the government has given duty
free facility on importing some goods which will help increasing
franchise restaurant and hotel rapidly. Because, it is a precondition or
part of the infrastructures to make the country capable of using
foreign direct investment and a huge number of foreigners will stay here
continuously. However, it has been misinterpreted by the press,
opposition political parties, and the members of the parliament of the
government party, even by the economists. Such as, the issue regarding
the tax on the deposit money in the bank account is being
misinterpreted. Before this budget, it was imposed 150 BDT on 25000 BDT,
so depositor had to pay 600 BDT on one hundred thousand takas but now
it has been removed up to one hundred thousand BDT.
This budget has imposed 800 BDT on one hundred thousand BDT deposit. The
finance minister has already said that he would cut it down. But, to
maintain a proportion by reducing in the gap of inequality it was
logical. Less income group would have got more remedies if it had
continued. However, a democratic government needs to think from many
perspectives. Sometimes they have to honor the mass people’s opinion
despite the fact that it is not hundred percent correct. Besides,
regarding the Bank deposit issue, people are criticizing the government
for an unofficial statement regarding decreasing the interest rate of
savings bonds. Government has formed a committee to take decision on it,
but in the meantime International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave a statement
for reducing the interest rate of savings bond. It is a very sensitive
and essential issue in our economy because we have no strong stock
exchange market. So, lower and middle-income group have no alternatives
to invest their savings. But this savings is the only security in their
life. Until and unless the stock exchange market of the country is
strong, people will not get the confidence to invest there without being
afraid of any unexpected debacle. That is why the government has to
maintain a high rate in these savings bonds for the lower and
middle-class people. In this sector, the government can provide a
subsidy, but this subsidy can make more profit. Because if the
government gives a high rate in the long time savings bond, the
government will get huge capital which they can use in many development
sectors. Direct and indirect profit of those development sectors will be
more than the subsidy ultimately.
However, these two issues have touched a mass, so it has wrapped up the
whole budget. Therefore, to open up the wrapper, we should analyze the
character of the budget properly. This budget is basically
self-dependent economy build up the budget. So, we have to analyze
keenly on “removing and imposing taxation portion of the budget” and
before that, we have to study whether the process of the taxation is in
favor of decreasing inequality and collecting wealth. If it is in favor
of those, it is rational.
The government should have made at least a group of parliament members and their spokespersons understand in an ease language that why is this tax policy and how it will not hamper the life of any classes. These people could deliver the exact information to the people easily. Upper class and upper middle class have got money; on the other hand, a huge number of the commodity is out of tax, which is for the poor and lower middle-class people; because it is daily necessity commodity. The present government led 14 party alliance has entirely failed to give a proper reaction to the budget, their statement says that they did not understand the goal of the budget.
The government should have made at least a group of parliament members and their spokespersons understand in an ease language that why is this tax policy and how it will not hamper the life of any classes. These people could deliver the exact information to the people easily. Upper class and upper middle class have got money; on the other hand, a huge number of the commodity is out of tax, which is for the poor and lower middle-class people; because it is daily necessity commodity. The present government led 14 party alliance has entirely failed to give a proper reaction to the budget, their statement says that they did not understand the goal of the budget.
The main spirit of the budget is always the political vision of the
ruling political party. Budget is not a book of accounting of income and
expenditure statement; it is a vision of the nation or political
parties. Budget is never limited in the economy area, it has a totality
character. It presents the government’s vision on education, culture,
health even the humanity. Such as, for last eight years, the government
has been allocating money for the trail of war criminals; anyone can
say, it is not an economic and social build-up issue, but in reality, it
is an economic and social build-up issue. Because, to make a nation, we
must have to clear-up the war criminals from the society, which is
being done by Europe still now. However, the government has failed to
tell their people the real message, the reality, and the characteristics
of the budget. They have proposed a historical budget but have failed
to make the people understand the actual scenario; in spite of that,
still, they have time in their hand to make the people understand that
this budget is the starting of the transformation of the economy.
Swadesh Roy,
Executive Editor. The Daily Janakantha, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is a
highest state award winning journalist; and can be reached at
swadeshroy@gmail.com