Policy for bigger revenue to buoy up economy

The government is now framing strategies how and in which way revenue collection can be increased to keep the ongoing development work and financial activities afloat.

Officials concerned said that revenue collection must be raised to meet the huge expenses in the New Year thanks to unusual spending including the purchase of vaccines in the health sector to tame the rogue COVID-19 pandemic.

Besides, due to stagnation in trade and development activities revenue collection has not been possible at the desired rate.

A negative trend in revenue collection has been noticed since the beginning of this financial year. This is mainly due to the decline in import-export activities, which affected the overall revenue collection. In the first five months of the financial year (July-November) the revenue collection target was Tk 112,959 crore. But only Tk 8,792 crore has been realized which is 23 percent less than the target.

As the revenue collection was not satisfactory the mounting expenditure was putting immense pressure on financial management. As a result, the government is considering raising revenue collection.

Export growth slowed to 7.59 percent (to 228 million in dollar terms) and import spending fell to US$ 123 crore.

Since the New Year has already begun, experts are thinking that the government should put more emphasis on raising money from foreign sources.

Economists have urged the government to implement the package of Tk 121,000 crore quickly because if this money reaches the real victims, the wheel of the economy will gain more momentum.

Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) and the export sector will be strengthened and employment opportunities as well as industrial production will increase.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal found a ray of hope for the new year's economy.

Recently he said the economy is on the right track. “Our economy is in a better position. We believe this trend will continue”.

From March to June last year, 3.59 crore people lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic. Economic growth fell short of the target by 3 percent.

The government declared a 66-day general holiday during the pandemic which led to a major collapse in trade, commerce, and industrial production.