A politically motivated budget, even if the government wanted to do so, will not yield any benefit for them in the next general election, ADB country director Hua Du said here on Monday.

"Most importantly, after the budget, only three months will be left before power is handed over to the caretaker government," she said in an exclusive interview with UNB Staff Writer Meer Saiful Islam.

Hua Du's observation came amid widespread speculation that a substantial amount would be allocated in the national budget for fiscal 2006-07 in the name of poverty alleviation to satisfy people before the election.

Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman is expected to place the budget in Parliament on Thursday (June 8). The budget session begins Wednesday.

The Asian Development Bank chief in Dhaka said the caretaker government and the next elected government would have opportunity to review the FY2007 budget. An election-oriented budget will not necessarily please the voters.

"In view of the slow funds release procedures, it will be impossible to go for a spending spree during July-September, even if the government wanted to do so," she said.

If the budget is prepared under the medium-term macroeconomic framework of the PRSP, there would be limited scope to waste resources for election purposes, she added.

On the other hand, Hua Du said, people are now increasingly watchful of government actions and they would be extremely critical of any visibly wasteful or politically motivated expenditure.

"So, any politically motivated budget may not yield any benefit to the current government," he said.

Asked about Finance Minister Saifur's remark that "every good budget is an election budget," the ADB country director said perhaps, the minister looked at the matter in a positive perspective. "An election budget is considered to be a popular budget-a budget favored by the majority of the voters."

If the government could make the budget for every year look like an election budget that would be greatly welcomed by the people and such a budget would reflect on the confidence and capability of the government, she said.

In reality, however, Hua Du said that due to binding resource constraints and competing claims to deliver a large number of promises and expectations, the government has to perform a difficult harmonizing job.

© Copyright 2003 by The New Nation