Cash incentives in budget
Photo: AFP
According to the tradition of Bangladesh a mega size budget is going to be declared in the beginning of upcoming month. To protect or motivate certain sectors a trend of 'cash incentive' is being practiced for last few years. Especially in agricultural sector it is a highly discussed, undoubtedly required, issue. Moreover, to survive from the effects of global recession, most of the industries have received such incentives this year from our government. Apparently, it seems good and a commendable venture but the reality is not depicting the same thing. Cash is the most liquid, easiest to spend also, asset on earth. If the receiver is not capable enough to handle it properly, there is a great possibility of being misuse of that money. Most probably for this reason, we have not acquired the desired return from the loans provided by Bangladesh Krishi Bank or Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank. Generally after receiving the loan from banks the local farmers spend it within a short time and don't hold enough money for the period of emergency. Actually this is very short-term incentive and it doesn't bring any sustainable result. Incentive on basic development can be more helpful to the real stakeholders. In case of industries, offering four/five lakh taka is not much helpful or can't add value to their entire business operations. Rather, if the import duty on capital items or raw materials is reduced, it will improve their ability to compete with foreign competitors. In such a way, in case of agriculture, if the duties on useful machineries (e.g. pumps, power trawlers), fuels (diesel), insecticides or pesticides, seeds are reduced and supplied to the farmers timely at reasonable prices, it will bring positive results.
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