Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has termed the provision for whitening black money in the new budget a way to enable and encourage corruption.
It states in a press release, published on Friday, that by giving the opportunity of whitening black money in the name of keeping the economy running, increasing revenue, and encouraging investment and creating jobs, the government is giving the opportunity to commit more corruption and is legalizing money laundering.
TIB has demanded to remove such "discriminatory and unconstitutional" scope from the budget.
TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said: “This step [whitening black money] is unacceptable and it goes against the prime minister’s zero-tolerance policy on corruption.
“The country’s economy has not improved even after giving such provisions in earlier budgets…rather it encourages corruption among the people. It goes against section 20(2) of the constitution and is discriminatory against the honest earning citizens.”
The organization has also condemned the government for not ensuring enough budgetary allocation for the healthcare sector, which is laced with indiscipline, ill management, and corruption, even amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman further said: “There should be proper guidelines regarding the distribution of the Tk10,000 crore allocated for Covid-19 management.”
“Other than this lump sum allocation there has been no increase in the budgetary allocation of the Health Services Division. Rather, the allocation for the healthcare sector has even been reduced to 5.1%, which was 5.8% in the last fiscal year,” he added.
