Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury has said that the representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) respected the government’s financial reform and political responsibility. Talks were held on the basis and sequencing of Bangladesh’s new program with the IMF in the coming days, and on the overall aspects of policy, he said.
The finance minister told journalists this after a meeting on Monday at the ministry with the IMF’s mission chief for Bangladesh and Hong Kong, Ivo Krznar.
The finance minister said the basis on which the new program with the IMF would be run had been made clear, and that they had fully agreed with the proposed bases. Maintaining the continuity of the reform program, changes would be brought in phases considering the country’s economic context, he said; no big change was possible overnight, and the IMF had agreed on this.
He said that, considering the country’s overall economic situation, changes would be implemented gradually on the basis of which reform was needed when, as a matter of priority, and that the IMF had endorsed this principle of sequencing. The IMF, he said, had especially respected the welfare accountability and responsibility of a political government, and economic decisions would be taken while keeping the interests of the country’s people intact.
The minister said the IMF delegation had expressed satisfaction with the visible progress in financial-sector reform, the development of the stock and capital markets and revenue collection during the current government’s four-month tenure. Collecting tax in just four months for the first time in the country’s history had been noted as a major achievement, he said, and there had been positive discussion on the government’s proposals to further raise the tax-to-GDP ratio while maintaining this positive trend.
On subsidies, the finance minister made clear that no specific details or conditions had yet been discussed, and that the talks had mainly been about building the basic framework of the new program, with all matters to come to the table for detailed discussion later.
Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury also said the talks were an ongoing process, and that the next discussion on the matter would be held at the World Bank’s annual meeting in September or October. The IMF was satisfied with the current government’s reform-oriented performance, he said, and it was on this basis that the new program for the coming days would be finalized.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report