News Details

Fuel price adjustment a must : Muhith


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Finance Minister AMA Muhith onSunday said the government has decided to reduce subsidy on petroleum productsfor the next fiscal considering economic condition of Bangladesh.

"We want to reduce subsidyburden on the economy by adjusting fuel prices from the next fiscal," saidMuhith adding that it will help to curb the government's budget deficit also.

Muhith said this while replying aquestion at a dialogue on proposed budget for the fiscal 2012-13 held at NawabAli Senate Bhaban at Dhaka University in the capital.

Noted economists, businessleaders, think tanks, educationalist and different university students attended the function jointly organised by DeshTV and Prime Bank.

"We want to increase ourrevenue income in the next fiscal for achieving a balance between income andexpenditure in the upcoming budget," he added. Lauding the country'seconomic  resilience, Muhith said oureconomy keeps on growing despite the persisting investment stagnation.

"Investment, both local andforeign, remained low and stagnant over last few years but the GDP growth ratekeeps on rising," he noted.

He said the government will takenecessary steps to achieve a higher GDP growth and to enhance revenue income.

The Minister said, "We haveprovided the opportunity of whitening black money by imposing penalty so thatundisclosed income can be brought into the mainstream economy."

Replying a question, Muhith said,the proposed budget focused mainly on human resources, infrastructure, powerand energy sectors development to achieve the budgetary goals.

Minister said, "We tried toallocate enough money for the development of higher education. On the otherhand, we want to reduce the scarcity of teachers at all levels and developtheir skills," he added.

He assured that the country'stechnical institution and education system would be reformed to increase jobfacilities.

Muhith said, "We havealready provided vat and tax free Internet in all educationalinstitutions." The 15 per cent  VATon Internet for students should be reduced or removed, he said adding but wecannot offer the facilities at the moment.

He further said the governmenthas been  delayed to providing the 3Gfacilities to the users for the different reasons.

About duty tax at source, he saidthis is the best way for earning the revenue income.

Replying a question the Ministersaid, "We are trying to give  alldigital facilities at the secretariat."

About the tourism sector, hesaid, "We have not built any structure for tourism sector, we will providethe road, transport and security services to promote it."

The Minister urged the privateinvestors to more invest on the tourism sector to develop it.

Finance Secretary Dr Md Tareq,Rasheda K Choudhury, Mostafa Jabbar, Prof MM Akash, Hasan Monsur, RupaliChoudhury, Hafiz Uddin, Prof Anwar Hossain, Ajoy Roy and Abul Maksud werepresent at the function, among others, moderated by Asaduzzaman Noor, ManagingDirector of Desh TV.

[ Front Page ] 2012-06-18