Alok Acharja

The country is on the verge of a new fiscal year. Along with this, a new budget will be prepared. The interim government is in charge of running the country. The budget for the current fiscal year will come at a time when the world is going through a difficult time. There is a sense of war everywhere. The Russia-Ukraine war is going on, Israel's military operation in Gaza is going on, India-Pakistan tensions, the possibility of new Rohingyas entering the country, etc. Bangladesh is also going through a change. This time, the budget is going to be in that vein. The budget is more intertwined with the happiness and sorrow of the common people
than the common people realize. The common people understand the budget as the market. And the market means the price of daily necessities is high or low. That is why there is concern about the budget. What kind of budget will it be? How much of the budget will be implemented, or will the price of some things increase or decrease? Inflation in the country food products is still a concern. The prices of consumer goods must be brought closer to the people. In addition, efforts must be made to reduce unemployment. The number of educated unemployed people in the country is increasing. All these will be in the budget. That is why the
question of how effectively the budget will be implemented is more important than whether the budget will be small or large. An effective budget inspires hope in the minds of the people. For this reason, it is not enough to formulate a budget alone; the implementation rate of the budget is also important. However, for various reasons, 100% implementation of the announced budget has not been possible since independence. Even if it is not 100%, it must be implemented to a standard amount. That is why efforts should be made to increase the budget implementation rate as much as possible. Over time, the size of the country's budget has increased every year as needed. At the same time, issues such as development, maintaining economic stability,controlling inflation, reducing pressure on the middle class, etc., are involved in budget formulation. Therefore, budget formulation is a challenging issue for the interim government. Action plans and allocations are needed for the educated unemployed. Therefore, this budget is more challenging than the last one. The challenge of this budget is to maintain the pace of economic development of the country and reduce the pressure on living standards by boosting the economy and improving the quality of life of the people. Due to inflation, the cost of living of the people has increased a lot. Before the budget is announced, people have many questions. Especially about the size of the budget. However, the people no longer want the budget to be ambitious. The budget should be realistic. That is, it should be as much as I can use and provide properly. As far as the sources
published in the media know, the size of the budget for this fiscal year (2025-26) is going to be smaller than the previous one. The budget for the fiscal year 2025-26 will be announced on
June 2. The possible size of the new budget is 790 thousand crore taka. And to implement it, a loan of 2 lakh 30 thousand crore taka will have to be taken, both domestic and foreign. Of which, foreign debt is about 8.5 billion US dollars (1 lakh 5 thousand crore taka). The National
Parliament passed a budget of 7 lakh 97 thousand crore taka in the current (2024-25) fiscal year.

According to the World Bank's forecast in the case of Bangladesh, Bangladesh GDP growth in the fiscal year 2025-26 may be 5.9 percent. High debt, weak investment, and geopolitical
instability may limit this growth. Due to persistent inflationary pressures, people real income  has decreased in the last two years. According to research data from Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID), at least 7.8 million people have been pushed into
poverty, of which 3.8 million have become extremely poor. And 9.83 million people are at risk of falling below the extreme poverty line. Although the size of the budget has increased over time, the effectiveness of the big budget was questionable. This time, even if the size is small, if
the implementation rate is high, the budget will be worthwhile. This has to be done. Its implementation is certainly a challenge. The new budget will have to combine political commitments with development. Because the expectations of the people have now increased. The country has to be taken forward in a new way. And that is why we need a new plan. The budget is a symbol of the hopes and aspirati one of a country. The main challenge for the government is not budget formulation but budget implementation. One of the goals of the  budget is to reach the marginalized people and push the country in a dynamic direction. The
budget has challenges such as increasing the speed of revenue collection, strengthening the banking sector and reducing the number of defaulters, increasing export earnings, creating new sources of employment, improving the quality of education, etc. At the end of the day, the general public does not want to know how much of the budget has been implemented or is being implemented, but at the end of the day, they want to know how much the price of any commodity has increased or decreased in the market. The budget is announced to address this challenge. At this moment, the government's biggest challenge is to control the market, especially to rein in the price increase of food products. In addition, the prices of other essential commodities are also rising. Even before the budget is announced, there is discussion about the budget everywhere, including in the media. These discussions are based on how the upcoming
budget will be and how the previous budget was or to what extent it has been implemented. It is believed that this budget will play a helpful role in mobilizing the economy and controlling inflationary pressures. 
Tajuddin Ahmed, the first finance minister of independent Bangladesh, presented the first budget. Tajuddin Ahmed announced the budget for the fiscal years 1971-72 and 1972-73 simultaneously on June 30, 1972. The size of that budget was 786 crore taka. Then there was a political change in the country. After many ups and downs, it stood in the queue to become a powerful country in the Asian economy. With time As the population has increased, the need has increased, and the size of the budget has increased in line with it. The quality of life of the people of the country is closely related to the budget. The development of the country is involved. As a result, the budget is a very important issue. The impact of the budget is then on the market. Because the price of some things is decided in the budget and the media is the cause of the increase, and those very marginal buyers and sellers also read it. After the budget, the increase in the price of goods is also a common occurrence in our country. Even after hearing about the increase in prices, many people increase the prices. As a result, lower and middle- class people are mainly affected by it. Because their situation is already in a state of turmoil throughout the year. In the meantime, if the price of goods increases in the market, it will create a worse situation. Dealing with the current situation, especially the efforts to make people's
lives and livelihoods easier or reduce pressure, will be more important.

Then comes the issue of various sectors of the economy. First of all, there is employment. The problem of unemployment is a headache for most countries in normal times. Efforts are made to
solve the problem of unemployment with a specific target. Unemployment, hunger, and poverty are the three consequences that the world is facing due to war and natural disasters and will have to face for many years to come. To boost the rural economy, there are easy loans to
marginal entrepreneurs, involving rural women in economic activities, and developing rural infrastructure. Agriculture must be given importance to ensure food production and storage. The agricultural sector needs to be given utmost importance to revive the country's economy. To
ensure the country food security, we must give importance to agriculture. Only agriculture can sustain us in situations like food crises. Along with these, we must pay attention to the  education sector. There will be a challenge to make education up-to-date. Until education is made up-to-date and of international standard, the country will not achieve the desired success.Skilled and sufficient teachers are needed. Teachers must be trained to make them skilled in
implementing the new curriculum. As a result, more importance must be given to this sector.
The success of the budget depends on the implementation of the budget. The extent to which it has been possible to implement it is important. The capacity to implement the budget must be strengthened. Full implementation may not be possible, but the closer it is to implementation,the more the general public will enjoy the benefits of the budget.

The writer is a essayist and columnist