Finance Minister AMA Muhith said he sometimes had to bow to political factors while taking decisions on the country’s economic issues during the tenure of the present government.
The minister also said some of his proposals had not been accepted while he had to accept some proposals which he would not support.
He, however, would not elaborate on the issues.
“I had to compromise during the last five years as a political government, assumed office with huge majority, has to satisfy its voters,” he told the Dhaka Tribune in an interview in Washington DC recently.
But, Muhith said, as the finance minister during the rule of military dictator HM Ershad, he had taken all the decisions related to economy by his own.
He said after coming to power in 2009, the prime minister had explained to him how she wanted to see Bangladesh in the future.
“Then I took reform programmes in the second year of the government. For instance, we initiated enacting the VAT Law and the Bank Company Act.
“But the IMF put several dates for their quick execution of the laws as part of the conditions for credit facilities.” He, however, said the push had brought better results. The laws were passed several months ago.
Muhith said the major achievement of the last five years was the rise in the government’s local resource mobilisation which has increased by 4%.
“I carried out planned reform from the second budget, and in the third budget, I targeted to increase the domestic resources mobilisation from 10% to 14%.”
He spoke to the Dhaka Tribune at Hotel Embassy Suites in Washington DC after a meeting with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and attending the board meetings of the World Bank and the IMF.
Regarding funding of the Padma bridge project, the minister said Bangladesh had lost $1.2bn fund pledged by the World Bank last fiscal year due to allegation of possible corruption. “But we received $1.5bn in the last fiscal year and the disbursement next year will be $1.8bn.”
He also confirmed that the $1.2bn fund meant for Padma bridge project would not be diverted to any other project.
The Asian Development Bank was likely to finance the mega infrastructure project, Muhith said, adding: “I will announce this within short time.”
The ADB stepped back from the project after the World Bank had suspended its funding.
Yunus hurting development
The minister also blamed Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus for creating negative impression about the government abroad. “He wants to destroy the economy. His activities are affecting the development assistance.”
Muhith said during the meeting Lagarde had recognised the achievement of Bangladesh in social sector.
She also talked about the contribution of Yunus in the development of social sector, “but I did not talk on the matter,” the minister said.
According to Muhith, Lagarde was the finance minister of the immediate-past France government when Yunus had received the highest honour of her country. Meanwhile, the US government also conferred him prestigious awards, “so they listen to what Yunus tells them,” Muhith said.
The minister, however, was disappointed with the IMF MD as she had not mentioned the name of Bangladesh for maintaining 6% growth rate for the last five years.
In her speech at the IMF headquarters, Lagarde named Cambodia for achieving 7% growth last year, from 4% the previous year. “But Bangladesh has achieved 6.3% growth in the last five years. I did not complain but demanded that the name of Bangladesh should have been mentioned in her speech.”
The minister also said: “I suggested Lagarde that in future, for the interest of global trade, the government’s finance and development activities in the public sectors should be monitored by international organisations instead of credit rating agencies like Standards and Poor’s and Moody’s.”