The probable report of White Paper Committee on the state of the country鈥檚 economy would enlighten the reforms pathway of the interim government and thus help to avert the deviations of the economy occurred over the years, said economist Debapriya Bhattacharya.
鈥楾he White Paper Committee will give hints to the interim government on various reforms...it will enlighten the government鈥檚 reform programmes,鈥� he said at the planning commission after holding the maiden meeting of the committee on Thursday.
The government formed the committee for the preparation of a comprehensive 鈥榃hite Paper on the state of Bangladesh Economy鈥�. The committee is chaired by Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow at Centre for Policy Dialogue and convener of the Citizen鈥檚 Platform for Sustainable Development Goals, Bangladesh.
Debapriya said that the operations of the committee would be a practice of bringing transparency in the economy and through such practice, the government would perceive that they had taken the charge of inheriting what kind of economy.
He said that they would also identify the challenges and barriers surrounding the economy and thus might help framing the future steps of the government.
The economist said that the report would also provide a roadmap so that the deviations and loopholes, which were created over the years in the country鈥檚 economy, did not reoccur.
He said that at the very outset, the committee would evaluate constructive and available data and information and thus would try to understand the base of the economy, adding that alternate data and information would also be considered if the usual data was not available.
The committee would not work for identifying corruption, rather it would try to identify why corruption took place and determining its intensity, he added.
He said that they would evaluate the various policies, rules and regulations of the previous government and thus try to figure out their relevance considering the current and future context.
鈥楾he most important thing is that the perpetrators get punished and there is no reoccurrence of such incidents. No matter, we get back the money, but it鈥檚 more important that the perpetrators get punished and I think they are in jail now as part of it.鈥�
鈥楾he report will give hints about the base and structure of the 9th Five Year Plan, possible steps about attaining the SDGs, and ensuring smooth and sustainable LDC graduation.鈥�
The chief of the committee informed that they would pursue three methods while conducting their operations 鈥� evaluation through criticism, utilising the think tanks, foreign firms, and holding discussions with the concerned stakeholders like students, businessmen.
Debapriya said that instead of waiting for the stipulated 90 days for the committee, they would try to publish draft interim reports on those accomplished segments of the economy and thus take feedbacks from various stakeholders to make those firm.
He told a questioner that they would not make any ADP portfolio analysis or make project-wise analysis, rather they would make suggestions for making improvement in ADP utilisation, especially there would be discussions on the mega projects.
Asked how far they would go back to consider the report, the economist said that they would go back as far as necessary to understand the reasons behind the current state of the economy.
鈥楾his [committee] is for not a full-fledged evaluation of the operations of the previous government, rather it will assist the interim government to move forward and thus suggest it for not to commit the previous mistakes.鈥�
Turning to the issues of mega projects, he said that they would consider the mega projects in the context of Bangladesh鈥檚 current economic challenges.
About the matter of repealing the provision for whitening black money, the chief of the committee, said that all had raised their concerns about the low tax to GDP ratio of the country for which they would also discuss about the internal resource mobilisation issues.
He said that the issue of whitening black money could come for discussion as all concerned had termed it as 鈥榗ounter-productive鈥�.
About the alleged corruption of billions of dollars in the financial and banking sector over the years as outlined by the interim government, Debapriya said that they would speak for preserving the rights of the citizens and depositors side by side advocating that no incapable person or institution would be given licenses in future.
About the issue of bringing back siphoned money, he said that there were discussions over the matter adding, 鈥業t is a complex issue鈥�.
Replying to another query, Debapriya said that the current public expenditure was also a part of bad shape in the economy.
鈥榃e鈥檙e now analysing the status of the economy, not the trend for years after years...education and health sectors didn鈥檛 receive desired allocations as there were deviations.鈥�