Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina today dismissed liquidity crisis in the banking sector saying that certainly there is money in the banks.
“There is an allegation that banks have no money. Why don’t (the banks) have money? Of course, money is there. But there is no money to be looted,” she told the Jatiya Sangsad here.
The prime minister said this in the House while winding up the discussions on the supplementary budget for 2018-19 fiscal in absence of Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
Pointing at the critics of the proposed budget for 2019-20 fiscal, Sheikh Hasina questioned how Bangladesh could accomplish so much development in the last ten years unless the budgets were not appropriate.
“Some persons say that we could not implement the (previous) budgets. We can place budget, but can’t implement it. If so, how have we been able to increase the size of budget from Taka 61,000 to over Taka 5 lakh crore today?” she pondered.
The premier said the government targets ambitious revenue collection and expenditures to some extent considering the development and GDP growth targets.
“So, we target a little bit high amount during projection. There is also necessity for fixing an ambitious revenue collection target to some extent,” she added.
She said Bangladesh has success stories for making impossible things possible in its last one-decade journey toward progress and prosperities. “Achievements would have not been possible had we not ambition,” she went on.
About the supplementary budget, the Prime Minister said, “Our budget needs to be amended, reviewed or fine tuned to some extent because of the reality, which we do every year. It happens in the budgets of all countries.”
Some 7.8 percent GDP growth was estimated in the budget for 2018-19 fiscal, but 8.13 percent GDP growth has been estimated in the supplementary budget, she pointed out.
“It was estimated in the budget that the inflation rate would be 5.6 percent. But 5.5 percent inflation has been estimated in the supplementary budget,” she said.
The Leader of the House added that the government has been able to keep the inflation under control due to cautious measures over designing and implementation of the budget.