Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday said the financial sector criminals would not be spared, even if any of them belongs to his family.
“Criminals [financial] must be brought to justice even if they come from my own family,” Mustafa Kamal told reporters at his secretariat office, while responding to a question over the Tk200 crore alleged capital flight from the country in the name of exporting earthen terracotta tiles by a local business entity, SB EXIM, recently.
The business entity is owned by one ShahjahanBablu. A vernacular daily published the news on Thursday.
“The [financial sector] criminals must face consequences for their crime. No one will be spared,” Kamal added.
While a reporter supplemented to the question by bringing the issue of former BASIC bank chairman Abdul HyeBachhu, the finance minister said, “Forget about the past. I am talking about it from now, and onwards.”
He said there were a minor number of bad people in the country but a large number of people are honest, and patriots.
AIIB pledges $1.0 billion
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) pledged $1.0 billion this year for Bangladesh at the bank’s first Annual Meeting held at Luxemburg from July 12-13, 2019.
Kamal attended the meeting, as Bangladesh is a founder shareholder of the China-led bank.
He said the AIIB President JinLiqun lauded Bangladesh’s economic growth, and termed its people as generous, and enterprising.
“In AIIB’s evaluation, Bangladesh economy is strong. Last year, AIIB’s assistance for Bangladesh was $500 million. The amount for this year is set to be doubled.”
Finance Minister Mustafa Kamal said, Bangladesh was performing well in the foreign debt management, having no overdue or unpaid instalment.
“I have portrayed Bangladesh at the AIIB meeting positively, saying people are advancing the country. The government is only providing some support to the endeavours of the people,” he said.
Stakeholders’ meeting for better implement of annual budget
Finance Minister said a stakeholders’ meeting would be organized from time to time for better output in implementing national
budget.
“Earlier, the stakeholders meeting used to be held only before annual budgets. From this fiscal year, stakeholders meeting will be organized by the Ministry of Finance to get advocacy on budget implementation,” he said.
Capital Market is not for making profits from trade only
Finance minister said the common behaviour of the stock market investors is aimed at making short-term profit from trade.
“They [investors] are not patient enough to buy good shares, and hold those over a period for capital gain. This is why small investors are losing money, and big players are benefiting out of such persistent behaviours,” Kamal said.
“My role as finance minister is to facilitate investors, and I have offered that in the last budget,” he said, adding the tax-free dividend income limit was doubled from Tk25,000 to Tk50,000 in the current budget.
