Amar Bangladesh Party (AB Party) on Monday said this Parliament is not a legitimate representation of the people of this country. All 350 dummy members are simply appointed by this ruling hybrid regime. They do not have the mandate of the people of this country. Therefore, as per the constitution of this republic, they have no jurisdiction either to propose or pass a budget.
The leaders of AB party said citizens cannot either be forced upon to pay ever increasing taxes and vat to those who are not transparent and accountable to the nation.
AB Party leaders were reacting to the budget passed yesterday at a media briefing held on Monday afternoon at its central office.
It was jointly conducted by AFM Solaiman Chowdhury, former chairman of NBR, Janata Bank, currently AB Party Convenor, and Asaduzzaman Fuaad, a barrister-at-law and Joint Member Secretary of the party.
Mojibur Rahman Monju, Member Secretary, Prof. Dr. Abdul Wahab Minar, a retired army major and Joint Convenor,, Didarul Alam, a retired lieutenant colonel and member of AB Party Central Convening Committee, were also present at the briefing.
Reminded the nation of its two pre and post budget briefing underlining the unprecedented financial crisis and severe mismanagement, FM Solaiman Chowdhury said nevertheless, we could not, sadly, see any reflections whatsoever in the budget. Provision of whitening the black money hasn’t been scrapped while the regular earners are forced upon with up to 25% tax. Businesses are inundated with endless tax and vat while the there has been no progress in business climate.
He said uncontrolled inflation for years, dollar crisis, declining foreign reserve, money laundering by the regime-loyal oligarchs and corrupt syndicate, loan defaulting in billions of dollars, increasing cost of debt repairing and running elephant-size government remain as it is under this regime. How this big size debt and deficit based budget can be implemented, there is no directions from the super-angry finance minister!
The AB Party leader said out of US$ 80 billion proposed budget, barely $35 bn can be raised as revenue, as per the past record of the NBR. Banking sector is in total mess; hardly, there is any money left for genuine investors who can create realtime employments for the tens of millions of graduate job-seekers.
All together, people are the least priority in this whole budgetary exercise. Creditors like IMF got the highest priority, along with other donors, in this budget who are collectively to be paid around 22% of the total expenditure budget, he added.
"Hardly, there are any consistent policies to curb on inflations, maintaining balance between fiscal and monetary policies, addressing corruption, attracting FDI, bringing discipline into banking sector and create jobs. This is a classical budget by a regime far from the reality of the country’s grassroots," said Solaiman Chowdhury.
MSH
