Nat'l budget is framed based on domestic demand: Mannan

Planning Minister MA Mannan today said that the national budget is framed in line with the demands of the country not complying with the conditions of the international financing agency like the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Planning Minister said this while addressing a dialogue titled "How can the thoughts of the under-privileged people be reflected in the national budget during the time of IMF" held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) in the capital.

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and the Nagorik Platform jointly organized this dialogue.

"The IMF is not a factor while preparing our budget and we're not dependent on them. We prepare our budget in line with our demands," he said, adding that the IMF was established long ago to support its member countries.

"Bangladesh takes loans as per its requirements. The IMF didn't give any condition while lending loan to Bangladesh this time," he added.

The Planning Minister said although inflation is a problem for the country, but it came down slightly last month and hopefully would reduce further in the coming days.

He also said that the government would have to work more to reduce the inflation rate further.

Noting that the current foreign currency reserve is now in a comfortable state, Mannan said that the foreign currency reserve is a continuous process and it could increase and decrease from time to time. "But, no such bad situation has been created in the country centering the foreign currency reserve. The reserve is now in a comfortable condition," he added.

He also hinted that the allowance for people against disabilities would increase in the next budget while the allowances for others would remain unchanged.

Mannan mentioned that the wage rate has been increasing gradually over the last three years while the government has also been working relentlessly to increase the utilization rate of the Annual Development Programme (ADP).

While presenting the keynote paper, distinguished fellow of the CPD Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said that the social disparity would increase in the country if budget is framed in line with the conditions of the IMF.

Moderated by CPD board of trustee Adv Sultana Kamal, Rana Mohammad Sohel, MP, former MP Barrister Rumin Farhana, distinguished fellow of CPD Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of brac Asif Saleh, executive director of CPD Fahmida Khatun and executive director of BUILD Ferdous Ara Begum spoke, among others, at the dialogue.