Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Friday defended his proposal to cut corporate tax rates for banks and financial institutions, saying that the move is intended to help bring down the lending rates to single digit.
He said the government had thought about the reduction much earlier, as the corporate tax rates remained high in Bangladesh compared to those in many other countries.
"The issue didn't come suddenly. We've been discussing it for long."
"This has even been discussed elaborately at the prime minister-level," he said.
Mr. Muhith was speaking at a post-budget press conference at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital.
He also dismissed the criticism that the budget was 'anti-poor'.
The finance minister termed the budget for the next fiscal year (FY) as an election-oriented one and said it is very much implementable.
The Ministry of Finance organised the press briefing in line with the tradition for explaining the finance minister's budget speech.
"Every budget is election-oriented, as we (try to) propose budgets that would be liked by the people," Mr. Muhith said.
"My all budgets are for election, as I am an important member of my party."
However, the finance minister reacted strongly to the media queries as to whether the budgetary proposals placed for the upcoming fiscal year (FY), 2018-19, were anti-poor or not.
"These are meaningless questions, simple statements of falsehood…."
The percentage of poor people (in the country) is not increasing, but it is obviously decreasing, he noted.
The percentage of poor people in the population has come down to 22.4 per cent from 30 per cent during the last seven years, he said.
He also dismissed the claim about growing income inequality in the country, although the government's own statistics show otherwise.
The finance minister said the journalists actually want to mean that there is no development at all.
"You (journalists) are trying to say that there is no development at all in the country."
He, however, at the end of the press briefing said 'sorry' for his angry reaction.
Mr. Muhith said the debt burden of Bangladesh remains much low.
He also said the burden is just US$ 37 billion. It includes a long-term debt pertaining to the Rooppur Power Plant.
But his statement about the debt stock was different than the statement of the Economic Relations Division Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam.
The ERD secretary said the current stock of debt is $ 31 billion with the per capita debt amounting to $198.
"Nearly 90 per cent of the debt is concessional, and the remaining is non-concessional," he added.
The finance minister also focused on the high gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in the country despite low investment and tax-GDP ratio.
He said the GDP growth rate has been increasing, as Bangladesh could utilise its investments "efficiently".
He opined that deficit is a common matter of the budget financing. But it never crosses 5.0 per cent of the GDP.
"We face shortfall every year. But this year it has come down compared to the previous year."
While replying to questions, Planning Minister A H M Mustafa Kamal said there are some inequalities in the society at the primary stage of development.
He also said 1.3 million people were employed in a year, and 1.4 million people became paid workers from unpaid workers.
Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said there is possibly a printing mistake about the proposal regarding imposition of VAT on online shopping transactions.
"We're actually trying to impose tax on the giant companies like Google, YouTube, and facebook etc."
Finance Secretary Mohammed Muslim Chowdhury told the reporters at the briefing that the government has started working about launching a universal pension system in the country.
"This does not mean that the pension system will be launched from the next financial year."
"We'll work with local and international financial institutions to implement it," he added.
Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu, Economic Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr. Mashiur Rahman, and Energy Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr. Tawfiq-E-Elahi Chowdhury, among others, were present in the press briefing.
