The main goal of this year's budget should be to create jobs for the unemployed, said Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, convenor of the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh, and distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
He also said that the budget for the fiscal year 2022-23 is very important for the country, given the current national and international economic context.
"Unemployment has increased at a large scale due to the Covid-19 pandemic, causing a number of people to become jobless. We have to formulate a budget that creates jobs for them,” he added.
He also said that the country needs a definite goal in creating employment and definite targets for how many new jobs will be created through public sector, private sector, entrepreneurship, and remittances.
“We need to focus more on job creation than GDP growth,” the economist added.
Bhattacharya was addressing a virtual dialogue on “Upcoming National Budget 2022-2023: Perspectives of the Disadvantaged Groups” organized by the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh.
The country's economy is recovering from losses incurred due to the pandemic, but by the beginning of 2022, the economic recovery has suffered a major setback due to various issues, he also said.
The issues included rising prices of various commodities and raw materials, rising freight costs and transportation costs, Ukraine-Russia war and global instability, Bhattacharya further mentioned.
He also said that there is fear that the last few months of the 2021-22 fiscal year may not end smoothly.
Thus, it is necessary to be more far-sighted in formulating this year's budget and to prepare an exceptional budget out of the conventional one by keeping in mind the possible crisis of the coming financial years, he added.
He also said that the budget needs to look at reducing inflation as the prices of commodities continue to rise and the purchasing power of the people has decreased where the savings have curbed.
Income has also decreased due to being unemployed again. Therefore, in order to free the people from this pressure of rising prices, the next budget must take steps to reduce inflation, the senior economist added.
During the pandemic, the government announced various stimulus packages which are being given through various ministries. These incentive packages need to be coordinated and a list needs to be prepared, he added.
In their recommendations for the national budget of FY23, the platform recommended earmarking budget allocation for the climate resilience livelihood of the people living in geographically vulnerable areas, such as in riverine, haor, and coastal regions.
“Education, health and employment are the three areas where persons with disabilities have been most affected. More than 40,000 children with disabilities dropped out during the pandemic,” said Khandekar Jahurul Alam, executive director, Centre for Services and Information on Disability (CSID).
They also urged to take specific measures and corresponding budgetary allocation for the riverine regions to protect the livelihood of flood victims and undertake measures to control and prevent soil salinity.
The platform also recommended allocating more budget for the ethnic minority and Dalits regarding their education, health, economic development and social protection schemes.
They also urged to introduce new programs/projects to enhance the skills of the Dalits so that they can increase the level of their income through alternative income-generating activities.
The citizen’s platform also recommended to cover the number of beneficiaries of the government stipend programs for children with disabilities and urged to triple it in the forthcoming budget.
Moreover, they also wanted to withdraw duty on traders for importing and manufacturing buses with power ramps or manual ramps suitable for persons with disabilities and to withdraw VAT and tax on deposits, FDR, and DPS for persons with disabilities.
They urged to redesign stimulus packages and make it easily accessible to youth-led small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and priority should be given to rural youth who wish to set up their own SMEs.
Moreover, funds for start-up need to be doubled in the fiscal budget.
They also recommended some special recommendations for the children, senior citizens, women, transgenders, and indigenous community.
Tony Michael Gomes, director, technical program, advocacy and communications at World Vision Bangladesh, said that proper child budget analysis is needed as nine ministries are engaged in child protection, ensuring quality education and nutrition benefits.
Shakeb Nabi, country representative, Cordaid, highlighted that the majority of the small and marginalized farmers are in the informal sector.
While allocating budget, decentralised and community-based agriculture should be focused along with the entire value chain, he added.
Md Mostofa Ali, senior program officer, Oxfam in Bangladesh, said that the agriculture budget should be farmer-friendly and include the farmers.
Shima Moslem, joint general secretary, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, stressed that the pandemic increased gender inequality.
Adopting the necessary policy-framework plans to ensure free inclusion in the labour market and budget allocation for the empowerment and protection of the transgender communities are needed, said Prof Robaet Ferdous, of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at University of Dhaka.
In light of the recovery from the pandemic when the aggregate demand requires to be stimulated for economic growth, inclusiveness comes as a big concern. At this point, the national budget should address the issues along with the government's commitment to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), said Avra Bhattacharjee, joint director, dialogue and outreach at CPD.
