Social protection amount in budget a number game: Speakers

There is an urgent need to enhance cash transfers to the marginalised and affected households in view of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the initial budget allocation should not be a constraint to this end, speakers said on Thursday.

They made the observations at a virtual national dialogue on “Social Protection and Employment in Budget FY2021-22: Was the focus adequate?” The dialogue was organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Oxfam in Bangladesh in association with the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh.

They said households urgently need to withstand the immediate loss of income and reduced expenditure. Cash transfer could be an effective tool for supporting the needy and triggering supply-side response in the economy, speakers said.

Towfiqul Islam Khan, senior research fellow of CPD, made a keynote presentation on the topic where he said the allocation and distribution of resources in the FY2022 budget, particularly in the area of social protection, have not been commensurate with demands of Covid times.

“The budget FY2022 should have been informed by concerns and lessons arising from the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

However, as the analysis reveals, without three particular social protection programmes — pension for retired government employees; savings certificate interest assistance and agricultural subsidy - allocation for social protection in the budget increased by only Tk 1,878 crore. This indicates that the allocation for social protection grew by a mere 2.9 percent in a pandemic year, if the aforesaid three programmes are excluded.

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of CPD and convener of Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh, chaired the session. He remarked that the social protection allocation seems higher because of the inclusion of various elements like pension. Bhattacharya also stated that allocations for social protection are not made as per vulnerability and these allocations often do not reach the right person.

Professor Mustafizur Rahman, another distinguished fellow of CPD, said poverty is a multidimensional problem and it should be dealt with accordingly. He reiterated the need for data and a participatory budget formulation.

CPD’s Chairman Professor Rehman Sobhan re-emphasised on how social protection allocation figures would be very low if social protection was re-categorised as per the recommendations from the dialogue. Professor Sobhan also highlighted the importance of such dialogues to form a link between the grassroots and the policymakers.

Professor Ali Ashraf, MP, former deputy speaker of the parliament and chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Government Assurances, stressed on the need for expanding the tax net which would allow higher government expenditure in vital sectors like social protection.

Rashed Khan Menon, MP, chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Social Welfare, said the ‘new poor’ have been left out in the budget. He also highlighted that the budget formulation process needs to be more participatory through discussion with various stakeholders.

Dr Laila Ashrafun, head of Sociology Department of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, pointed out that the true requirement of social protection is not fully known due to the lack of dialogue with stakeholders.

Dr Manisha Chakraborty, member secretary, Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal, Barisal District Committee, stated that the budget should be formulated by incorporating the voices of people.

Commenting on the reduction of corporate tax, Shams Mahmud, former president of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), opined that such initiatives should have been linked with job retention. Mr Ashekur Rahman, assistant resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) highlighted how the budget lacked initiatives to address the challenges to the ‘new poor’.

Dr Fahmida Khatun, executive director of CPD, and Dr Dipankar Datta, country director of Oxfam in Bangladesh, shared their views at the dialogue.

The dialogue was organised with the objective of assessing the national budget in light of survey-based findings on the emerging social protection and employment scenario in view of Covid-19.