DHAKA, June 3, 2024 (BSS) – The Bangladesh Economic Association

(BEA) today proposed a Taka 11,95,486 crore alternate national budget
for the next fiscal year (FY25).

BEA general secretary Dr Md Ainul Islam proposed this alternate budget
at a press conference held at its office.

Dr Ainul said this alternate budget has been proposed in a bid to
transform 70 to 80 percent majority population of the country into
sustainable middle class by 2034.

He said if this proposed  budget is implemented by the government,
disparity will be removed as well as there will be poverty alleviation,
ensuring of social security, reduction of inflation and improvement in the
foreign currency reserve situation.

BEA president Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad and immediate past
president Dr Abu Barkat were present among others.

The BEA alternate budget proposals highlight that the government would
have to explore many newer sources of revenue generation which were
unexplored in the past or not utilized as per necessity.

These include property tax, tax on excess profit, tax collection from the
recovered laundered money, undisclosed money and imposing tax on the
foreign nationals.

The association also suggested for putting more emphasis on direct tax
rather than indirect tax, keeping the poor, lower middle class and middle
class people outside the tax net for the next couple of years.

Out of the total alternate budget size of Taka 11,95,486 crore, the BEA
proposed for realizing Taka 10,24,767 core as revenue income which is
92.13 percent of the budget size. Out of the deficit budget size of Taka
1,70,719 crore, Taka 95,719 crore will come from the bond market, Taka
25,000 crore from the sales of savings certificates, Taka 50,000 crore
from the public and private partnership.

There will be no role of local loans and foreign loans in financing the
budget.