Budget not prepared at the dictation of IMF: Finance Minister

The proposed national budget of the next fiscal was not prepared at the dictation of International Monetary Fund (IMF), said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Friday.

“Rather, the proposed budget was prepared keeping common people’s welfare in mind,” he said while addressing a post-budget press conference at Bangabandhu International Convention Centre in the capital.

However, steps have been taken to implement some of their advice.

Replying to a question, the Finance Minister said it is better to work with the IMF. They make advice and support various aspects of economy. However, we didn’t prepare our budget at the dictation of IMF though different international agencies including the World Bank and IMF insisted the government to raise revenue earnings. Accordingly, a number of steps have been taken to boost revenue earnings.

During this time, the Finance Minister said the next year’s budget is not only for poor, or rich, rather it is for all.

On Thursday, the Finance Minister placed the proposed national budget of Tk 7.61 lakh crore for the next fiscal of 2023-24, with the target to attain 7.5 per cent GDP growth.

To achieve the growth target, he said the government would gradually come out of the contractionary policy and invest in ongoing and new growth-inducing projects including the mega-projects.

For this purpose, he said the budget of the next fiscal year has set a higher target of raising the public investment to 6.3 percent of the GDP.

The press conference was attended by Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque, Planning Minister MA Mannan, LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Md Tajul Islam, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, Industries Minister Narul Mazid Mahmud Humayun, Prime Minister’s adviser on economy Dr Mashiur Rahman, State Minister for Planning Dr Shamsul Alam, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder, NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Munim and Finance Secretary Fatema Yasmin.