AL hails budget; BNP, CPB not so kind

The ruling Awami League yesterday termed the proposed national budget "pro-people" and "realistic" but the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) were critical.

Tofail Ahmed, a veteran leader of the ruling party, in his instant reaction to the proposed budget at parliament, said the budget would help the country continue its ongoing development.

The Awami League's Dhaka city unit and its like-minded organisations brought out a procession hailing the budget proposals in front of the party headquarters on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital.

On the contrary, BNP said the proposed budget would not meet the expectations of the mass people.

Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, standing committee member of BNP, said the government kept Tk 145,380 crore deficit in the proposed budget which would be "forcefully taken out of people's pockets".

"We, the people, will suffer to meet the budget deficit. The government will fill up the deficiency by hiking gas or electricity price," Khasru said while talking to journalists at his Banani office.

Terming the budget "big", the BNP leader, also a former commerce minister, said it would affect the everyday life of people adversely.

"The government has confined the country's entire economy," he said.

Meanwhile, the CPB has rejected the budget proposal, terming it "pro-imperialist" and "anti-people".

In a statement signed by CPB President Mujahidul Islam Selim and General Secretary Md Shah Alam, the party said the scope of whitening black money would strengthen the "ongoing looting in the economic sector of Bangladesh".

The rich will be richer and the poor will be poorer because of the budget. It will widen disparity and class differences, the statement added.