Budget is implementable, will take Bangladesh one step forward: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Tuesday said the government will be able to implement the 2021-22 fiscal year budget based on the lives and livelihoods of the people despite the coronavirus hurdles and thus the country will precede one step ahead towards prosperity.     

“The finance minister has placed the FY 2021-22 budget giving priority to the lives and livelihoods of the people. I believe we will be able to implement the budget and thus Bangladesh will go one step forward (towards prosperity and development),” she said, taking part in the general discussion on the budget as the Leader of the House in the 13th session (Budget Session) of the 11th Parliament.

The Prime Minister also said the budget has given priority to maintaining the socio-economic advancement of the masses though the world economy has been stalled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  

In her budget speech, she vowed to give whatever money is required to purchase vaccines to bring 80 percent of the population under the inoculation.  

Referring to the upward trend of various economic indexes, the Prime Minister said the economy of Bangladesh is now on the way to complete recovery due to measures taken by the government under 23 stimulus packages though the effect of the Covid-19 second wave still persists.

Sheikh Hasina pledged to stand by the people, saying that if required her government would take prompt measures to keep moving the lives and livelihoods of the people and ensure the country’s economic recovery.  

She added: “I, through you (members of parliament), would like to assure the countrymen that the government is always beside the people amid the crisis (of coronavirus) and will remain beside them.”   

The Prime Minister said the government would make its way towards building a “Sonar Bangla,” free from poverty and hunger, as dreamt by the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, while implementation of over Tk 6,03,681 crore budget would be part of that endeavor.

The premier expressed her firm determination that Bangladesh would once again join the journey towards development by offsetting the economic impact of the global pandemic.

Taking a swipe at the critics of the budget and the government, the Prime Minister said many people are making criticisms, adding that she is in doubt whether they (critics) could realize the global situation arising out of the Covid-19.