Bangladesh unveils growth-friendly budget focussed on infrastructure development

Bangladesh has unveiled a growth-friendly budget focussed on infrastructure development. Introducing the budget proposal on behalf of the ailing Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in Dhaka yesterday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina set a GDP growth rate of 8.2 percent for the current financial year.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced that the poverty rate will be brought down by 10 percent in the next four years through a coordinated approach engaging the private sector to supplement the government’s anti-poverty initiatives. The budget envisages creation of jobs for 30 million people by 2030 and attain a double digit GDP growth in four



years. 

The government will set up an Universal Pension Authority for implementing gradual introduction of pension for all including those in the informal sector. The budget proposal envisages enhancing social safety net for the elderly, widows and victims of domestic violence. It has also proposed to raise the honorarium for freedom fighters from Taka 10000 to 12,000.

The opposition parties criticised the budget as being unrealistic. Senior BNP leader Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury said the proposed national budget will facilitate only a section of people and lead Bangladesh into debt trap.