Proposed budget imaginary, fictional and unrealistic: JP

Jatiya Party Chairman Golam Mohammad Quader has described the proposed national budget as imaginary, fictional and unrealistic and said the budget proposals need to be amended and reshuffled.

Quader, also the deputy opposition leader in the parliament, observed that there is a huge budget deficit and the way proposed to make up the vacuum is not realistic.

He alleged of a significant shortfall in the allocations for the social safety net and disaster management sectors. Besides, the increment in allocations for the health sector is nominal, he said.

The Jatiya Party chief was talking to the reporters just after announcement of the proposed budget at the national parliament.

He further said the proposed budget was drafted as per imagination of the finance minister and it needs to be changed to a great extent.

The minister increased expenditures in the budget as per need but stumbled in raising money, said Quader.

The government could not fulfill even 10% of the revenue collection target set in the previous budget, he said adding that, "They don't even know how much they will be able to collect in the next two months."

Apart from that, there is a considerable deficit in the estimated budget as the country did never witnessed the budget deficit to be 6.2 percent of GDP.

Jatiya Party Co-Chairman Kazi Firoz Rashid and other senior leaders of the opposition were present during the time.