Employment generation will be the major challenge in the forthcoming national budget of fy2018-19, people responding in a recent countrywide pre-budget survey viewed. To ensure robust national development, they also stressed stronger and effective spending in five areas, namely education, health and medical care, roads building and maintenance, adequate subsidies in agriculture, and establishment of more industrials units and factories.
BRAC and Institute of Informatics and Development (IID) conducted the survey as a part of a study to identify the people’s priority areas in the next national budget and review the progress of the implementation of the budget of the outgoing fiscal of 2017-18. The survey was conducted in all the 64 districts with participation of 3,846 randomly selected respondents.
Among the areas and issues the respondents gave most emphasis are: in education sector stipends and allowances for students (25%), supply of books and other education materials (24%), and establishing schools, madrassahs and colleges (18%); in health sector low cost treatment facility (42%), establishing hospitals and clinics (19%), and healthcare for the poor (12%); in agriculture sector supply of farming equipment and inputs in low cost (63%), low interest micro-loans (16%) and marketing facilities for farm produces (5%); in social security sector allowances for senior citizens (35%), shelter for the homeless (17%), and widow allowances (9%); in disaster preparedness sector appropriate measures for timely disaster forecast (47%), health and medical care both during and after disasters (10%), and building embankments to protect lives and resources against floods and storm surges (9%); and in migration sector increasing government assistance at the local level (34%), easy loan facility (21%) and increasing information flow from the government at the village level (20%).
The study report expects that money flow may increase with a reduction in revenue earning in the new budget coinciding with the next general election. Having analysed the budgets and their spending trends, the report said that the budget of fy2018-19 will be an election budget. The revenue earning might decrease, while the government spending will rise during the first six months, leading to an increased internal borrowing, such as borrowing from the banks. The overall situation may have a negative impact on the national economy.
The study also forwards three recommendations, based on a review of the spending of the budget of the outgoing fiscal and people’s priorities as reflected in the survey:
Give priority to aligning budget allocations along the social sectors according to the demands of the country’s financial development and SDG targets to be achieved by 2030
Strengthen private enterprises’ participation under public-private partnership (PPP) in realising big projects, and
Utilise public money and other resources, establish and strengthen transparency in public spending, and ensure timely and proper implementation of public sector development projects to ensure continued socio-economic progress of the country, particularly to effectively deal with the challenges Bangladesh may face in the coming years after it graduates to the club of developing countries from that of the least developed countries (LDCs).
