C T Online Desk: Farida Yasmin says placing some proposals in JS
Ruling party lawmaker from the reserved women’s seat Farida Yasmin has said that the implementation of any budget is challenging for a government, but the new one for fiscal year 2024-25 is particularly more challenging due setbacks caused by global economic turmoil.
Acknowledging that Bangladesh is not immune to these global issues, she said that a positive aspect of the proposed budget is that it has avoided overly ambitious targets.
In the general discussion on the proposed budget in the national parliament, Farida Yasmin made several recommendations. The session, chaired by Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, occurred on Wednesday at 4pm.
Farida Yasmin’s recommendations included increasing the budget for education and technology sectors to enhance the capabilities of citizens in the envisioned “Smart Bangladesh”.
She also proposed withdrawing the plan to raise taxes on telephone SIM cards and suggested increasing the number of taxpayers without putting undue pressure on existing ones.
Additionally, Farida Yasmin recommended that the government allocate cars for MPs. She argued that while the proposed budget includes duties on car imports, which may be well-intentioned, many MPs, unlike upazila chairmen and mayors who receive government cars, cannot afford to buy vehicles despite needing to travel extensively within their constituencies.
She also said that the car facility the lawmakers enjoy is not a luxury for them, rather it is a necessity. If the government provides cars to them, they would not have to import it themselves, she added.
Farida Yasmin in her proposal also urged to involve more the Bangladeshi envoys to boost the country’s remittance inflow as well as foreign investments. She also requested to specify the scopes where black money should be invested for the whitening purpose. Such money could be invested in the stock market, she said as an example.
Drawing the attention of the prime minister, Farida Yasmin said that taxes should be collected from the private hospitals with high priority. They are mercilessly extracting money from the patients, but do not pay taxes properly, she continued.
