Mr. Quazi Faruque
General Secretary,
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB)

This is plainly an election-based budget. Three governments will go through this budget, and so nobody wants to take responsibility. The Finance Minister has increased the scope of taxes and VAT, but not ensuring good governance will not bring good results and will not make it possible to meet targets. I feel as though they gave the budget just because they had to give a budget. The new government that will come may very well have to table a new budget.

The government should have strengthened mechanisms to keep prices of goods stable.  Consider laws against hoarding – hoarders are profiting but we have not seen any indication of the government playing an active role in preventing this.

I expect the prices of essentials to go up in the short term in the post-budget period - but this always seems to happen after every budget. It should stabilize after some fluctuations.

My overall analysis is this is an election-oriented and will be difficult to implement.