Smart Bangladesh: Budget theme mirrors AL’s 2041 vision

About six months ahead of the next general election, the government yesterday proposed the last national budget of its five-year term mainly keeping the ruling Awami League's vision of a "Smart Bangladesh" by 2041 and the election in mind.

The theme of the budget, "Towards Smart Bangladesh Sustaining the Development Achievements in a Decade and a Half", is similar to the AL's declaration adopted at its 22nd triennial council in December last year.

The theme of the AL's next election manifesto will likely be "Smart Bangladesh by 2041".

Political parties usually prepare election manifestos based on their declarations.

Next fiscal's budget increased the total allocation for the Election Commission to Tk 2,406 crore from the outgoing fiscal's Tk 1,538 crore.

The EC's development budget will decrease by Tk 467 crore from that of the outgoing fiscal. The operating budget for the constitutional body will increase by Tk 1,357 crore.

The additional allocation was made for the EC to meet its expense for the upcoming 12th parliamentary polls and elections to local government bodies.

The budget for the 11th national polls, held in December 2018, was Tk 700 crore.

Both the proposed budget and the AL's declaration have the common vision for building a sustainable, innovative, intelligent and knowledge-based Smart Bangladesh.

The finance minister in his budget speech said the dreams of "Smart Bangladesh" will be realised based on four main pillars -- smart citizen, smart government, smart society, and smart economy. This was also mentioned in the AL's declaration.

The minister said the government was hoping to produce 40,000 megawatts of electricity by 2030 and 60,000 megawatts by 2041. A similar statement was made in the AL declaration.

The minister proposed increasing the allocation for social safety net programmes by 11 percent from the outgoing fiscal. The AL in its declaration also promised to widen the coverage of social safety net.

He hoped that in "Smart Bangladesh", the per capita income will be at least $12,500; less than 3 percent people will be below the poverty line, extreme poverty will be zero, inflation will be between 4-5 percent; and the budget deficit will remain below 5 percent of the GDP.

At that time, the revenue-GDP ratio will be above 20 percent, and rate of investment will be 40 percent of the GDP. Also, the country will achieve 100 percent digital economy and science and technology-based literacy.

All services required by the citizens, including healthcare, will be delivered at their doorsteps, the finance minister said.

A paperless and cashless society will be created and most importantly, a society based on justice and equality will be established in "Smart Bangladesh", he added.

One of the pledges in the AL's 2018 election manifesto was to ensure sustainable and inclusive development, he said, adding that the prime minister has already set the target for building a developed and prosperous Bangladesh by 2041.

Now the premier has set a noble vision for establishing "Smart Bangladesh", which will ensure maximum welfare of the people, the minister mentioned.

At least Tk 100 crore has been earmarked as special allocation for research, innovation and development works to prepare youths and women for building "Smart Bangladesh".