Photo: Collected
Former Planning Minister MA Mannan on Wednesday (12 June) emphasized that it is necessary to identify where the budgetary allocation is spent and how the people are getting in return.
He said this while speaking as the chief guest at a dialogue on the national budget for FY2024-25 organised by Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), held at a hotel in the capital.
Talking about 10 years of experience in project implementation, Mannan said, “Where we are spending in the budget, what we are getting from there - these things need to be judged. Whether getting any return or not, needs to be seen.”
He said, “I had been involved in project implementation for about 10 years. I had many personal objections to many projects.”
The former planning minister also said, “Inflation hurts us. But my common sense says that our inflation is creeping, crawling. I think inflation is a by-product of growth. One cannot leave the other.”
“If we don't grow, our standard of living will go down. Inflation will come down a bit. But everything will be comfortable for us. We have to take this risk. Major economies are going through this process,” he added.
The CPD Executive Director Dr. Fahmida Khatun said that the budget did not see much action in these two aspects of reducing the inflationary pressure and trying to maintain the foreign currency depreciation.
She said that the targets given in the economic indicators in the budget are not feasible in the current economic context.
Anisul Islam Mahmud MP, Syed Manzur Elahi, Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman, Rasheda K Chowdhury, and Razequzzaman Ratan, among others, spoke at the function.
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