Budget brief, restrained but highlights inefficiencies: Prof Birupaksha Paul

Birupaksha Paul, professor of economics at the State University of New York, described the proposed national budget as "brief and restrained," marking a departure from the verbose and often overly ambitious budgets of previous years.

"This budget is economical in its outlook, which is a positive shift," he noted. "It avoids unnecessary verbosity and presents a more grounded fiscal plan."

A notable milestone, he said, is that Bangladesh's GDP is projected to cross the $500 billion mark for the first time—reaching half a trillion dollars. "This is a landmark moment in our economic history," he added.

However, Prof Paul expressed concern over the size of the fiscal deficit, which stands at just 3.6 percent of GDP—the lowest in recent years in terms of target setting. "When revenue collection is already weak, using the fiscal deficit as a share of GDP to assess fiscal stance becomes problematic," he cautioned.

He was also critical of the government's execution of the previous fiscal year's budget. "The government had nearly the entire fiscal year to demonstrate performance, yet it failed to show extraordinary efficiency," he said.

Citing the revised figures, he pointed out that the budget was cut by Tk 53,000 crore, of which Tk 50,000 crore came from the development allocation. "What's troubling is that operational expenditures did not decrease accordingly. This reflects inefficiency on the part of the government," he added.