Acting Speaker M Shawkat Ali on Wednesday stressed the need for formulating the national budget in light with the need for the common people to ensure public welfare.“Public welfare doesn’t depend on the size of the budget – whether it’s big or small – it’s rather the issue whether the people will be benefited or not,” he said while speaking at a pre-budget views-exchange meeting titled ‘Budget thoughts of the member of parliaments’ held at Sangsad Bhaban.
The acting Speaker said the budget would not be meaningful until it is formulated in line with the needs and demands of the common people.
Organised by the Budget Analysis and Monitoring Unit (BAMU), some 37 MPs attended the meeting presided over by parliamentary standing committee chairman on Public Undertakings ABM Golam Mostafa.
Shawkat Ali underscored the need for taking employment generation programmes in the budget through industrialisation and other steps in a bid to eradicate unemployment.
He also suggested taking steps towards adopting austerity in the budget, widening the tax net to increase revenue earnings and keeping allocation in the budget on priority basis.
National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman M Ghulam Hossain, Parliament Secretariat Secretary M Mahfuzur Rahman and Finance Division Additional Secretary Ranjit Kumar Chakrabarty were, among others, present at the meeting. UNB
