The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in its analysis of the National Budget for FY 2018-19 strongly opposes the government’s move to lower corporate tax rate for banks, insurance and financial institutions by 2.5 percent in the proposed budget.

Owners of two motor cars or residential property with a total area of eight thousand square feet in city corporations will have to pay a 10 percent surcharge on their income tax.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith said Bangladesh can attain 10 percent GDP growth through decentralisation of power by establishing autonomous local governments in districts and metropolitan cities.

Here comes good news!

The government is going to connect the national savings certificate (NSC) buyers' database with that used in the creation of national identity (NID) cards to prevent the certificates from going into the hands of ineligible people.

The government is continuing to treat banks with kid gloves instead of going tough on them for the rampant financial irregularities and continued poor judgement.

The government's allocation for the power and energy sector has been rising in the last one decade, but the country is still struggling to meet the spiralling demand for energy.

Every year when the budget is placed in the parliament, Taufiq Hasan, a 35-year-old private sector employee, gets all worked up about which products and services he would have to pay more the following fiscal year.

The proposed budget for the next fiscal year is unrealistic, as it lacks significant structural and policy changes, analysts said in their immediate reaction yesterday.

The government is going to bring another 12 lakh people under social safety net programmes in the next financial year with the introduction of an electronic fund transfer system to ensure that the money goes directly to the accounts of the beneficiaries.

Fast-track projects, as the title suggests, are supposed to be implemented at breakneck speed because they boost economic activities once they are complete.

The government will bring an end to the vulnerable situation public jute mills are in by running those under the public private partnership (PPP) model.

A corporate tax cut for listed banks, insurance companies and financial institutions and announcement of development measures for the bond market are the only achievements of stock investors from the budget announced for FY 2018-19.

The proposed rise in corporate tax will hurt the flow of fresh investment into the garment sector as entrepreneurs will feel discouraged to inject fresh funds, said the top leader of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) yesterday.

Asad Kazi of Bagerhat was advised dialysis for kidney disease. His wife Hawa told doctors that they wanted medicinal treatment as dialysis would cost them Tk 7,000 a month on average.

As the government had formulated National Education Policy immediately after coming to power in 2009, educationists started advocating for spending at least six percent of the GDP for education.

Customer will have to pay more for products and service bought from one's mobile phone as the government yesterday introduced a 5 percent value-added tax on those from next fiscal year and also raised the surcharge on handset imports.

Fy 2018-19...

It looks like another repeat story. We had a big budget that failed to achieve its targets. Now we are pushing for a bigger one with higher targets. But with the ground reality remaining the same, are we to see a story foretold for the next year?

National Budget 2018-19 ....