Opposition lawmakers today criticised the proposed budget specially for keeping the scope for whitening undisclosed money while treasury bench hailed it.

They came face to face while taking part in the discussion on the proposed budget for 2019-20 fiscal year in the parliament this evening.

Business leader turned ruling Awami League lawmaker Abdus Salam Murshedi said the proposed budget was good for countrymen as well as businessmen.

“Keeping the scope of whitening undisclosed money in the budget was timely and positive step,” he said adding that the real estate sector will be boosted up for this decision.

“You cannot have development keeping money idle,” said Salam.

About an hour later, Jatiya Party lawmaker Rowshan Ara Mannan censured the government for keeping scope for whitening black money. She alleged that the government keeps the scope to legalise the undisclosed money in favour of black money holders and the rich.

About the top 300 loan defaulters, she said the names of many large loan defaulters were missing in the list as they manage to keep away their names from the list through High Court stay orders.

“Government is interested to take credit of large-scale budget, but they are not that much interested to recover the default loans,” she said.

“Government should ensure stern punishment for the loan defaulters,” she said.

She urged to finance ministry not to increase VAT on e-commerce as it will affect online business. She also urged not to increase tax at source on family savings certificates.

Jatiya Party Sayed Abu Hossain said that banks are facing liquidity crisis as the government are taking loan from the banks.

He also demanded cancellation of additional five per cent supplementary duty tax on phone calls.

“There are some inconsistencies in the budget,” ruling Awami League MP Tofail Ahmed said.

He urged the prime minister and finance minister to remove the inconsistencies in the proposed budget.

Tofail, however, did not mention the inconsistencies and termed the proposed budget as “very good one”.

Tofail and others senior Awami League MPs like Amir Hossain Amu, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, Afsarul Ameen, discussed Awami League’s history and its contribution to the nation at length as the party celebrated the 70th founding anniversary on the day.

They also praised Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for his leadership for making the Bangladesh independent.