Put highest priority on health, social safety in upcoming budget: CPD

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has urged the government to put the highest priority on four areas including health and social safety net in the upcoming 2021-22 budget, considering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a press conference on Thursday, the local think-tank said as the pandemic is likely to prolong, the policymakers should formulate the budget based on readjustment, recovery and reform policies.

CPD executive director Fahmida Khatun, Distinguished Fellow Professor Mustafizur Rahman and Khondaker Golam Moazzem were present at the event.

The four major areas the think-tank identifies are ensuring better health facilities for Covid patients, enhancing social safety net programmes for poor, new poor and marginalised people, raising allocation for employment-enhancing infrastructure development projects, and supporting agriculture, SMEs and export-oriented industries for their recovery.

During the current fiscal year, the government has raised the allocation for the health sector but unfortunately, the ministry of health and family planning was unable to spend the allocated amount, the organization said.

“Till March 2021, the Health Services Division spent only 21 per cent of its allocated budget, which was much lower than even the average national ADP expenditure (41.92 per cent). It appears as one of the poorest performers in terms of implementation of ADP during this period,” it said.

“The budget allocation for division should be increased in the way it will be able to spend the amount with addressing its internal weaknesses and challenges. The additional allocation needs to be utilised for expanding treatment facilities like setting up isolation units with necessary treatment facilities, oxygen supply, increasing the number of ICU beds and required facilities,” the CPD suggested.

For the social safety net, the think tank said the government programmes to support the poor and new poor have a political bias as local political activists played an influential role in making the list of beneficiaries.

The beneficiary selection process, it suggests, should be based on local level organisations such as CSOs/NGOs/CBOs database.

Meanwhile, considering the loss of crop (approximately 1 lakh tonnes) due to heat wave, the government has allocated Tk42 crore for the affected farmers.

“The ministry of agriculture should identify the ‘actual’ farmers who lost the crops, and take steps to disburse the fund properly,” it said, adding that the amount was however very low.

The CPD said it is important to ensure speedy disbursement of the subsidised credit among eligible small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Banks specialised in SME financing should be allocated more funds to disburse credit not only to their existing clients but also to new borrowers, it added.

“Banks should explore innovative approaches to disburse credit for SMEs – these could be done through the selection of new borrowers with recommendations of business associations, local businesses, trade bodies and MFIs,” it suggested.

For RMG and other export-oriented businesses, the government should provide a fresh 10 per cent cash incentive for enterprises.

The enterprises which will produce 100 per cent non-cotton based apparels should be eligible for this facility. These fiscal incentives may be put in place for the next seven years.