Padma Bridge and Gossips

According to the Bangladesh Bank, the total amount of the banks’ defaulted loans was Tk 227.09 billion on December 31, 2010 which was Tk 224.82 billion in the preceding year. The latest estimated cost for the Padma Bridge project figured Tk 205.07 billion. Theoretically with the defaulted loans it can be built and still have a surplus of Tk 22.02 billion! But the fact is the bucks are in the book not in the vault! Why the country would need a bridge when the mighty river may even soon become a highway by default if India continues to divert water in the upstream! One wonders why we have to beg the World Bank or any other international financial institution for help! Does Bangladesh or India need this bridge, one might critically ask! Why Bangladesh is crying so loud to serve others interest. Simple answer is if India and USA don’t support no political party could win in the next election.

The simple arithmetic tells us it is possible to fund large national infrastructure projects by mobilizing domestic resources and stopping the corruptions. The country is not as poor as we are led to believe and it does not need to depend on degrading foreign aid. Years of aid dependence has made us not lazy, but crazy for hoarding wealth and get rich sooner rather than later. For example- land or apartments in areas like Gulshan, Baridhara, Banani or Khulshi (Chittagong), are transacted @ Tk 20,000–24,000 per square feet. A house sold 5 years back for Tk 800,00,000/-, and the same is being resold for Tk 200,00,00,000/- today. Of course no wonder inflation rate is fueling the price up too. Without any logical reasons peoples standard of living degraded by the government while devalue its currency in the name of export boosting, overlooking the inefficiency of the exporters and manufacturers. This pull the growth of economy and its sustainable development of quality backward paced. Citizens cannot enjoy the fruit of growth if its currency devalued regularly and without any good economic reasons. Only some exporters got the benefit, not the country as the lion share of their earnings don’t come to the country. This is a sheer government pick-pocketing. We must not forget we import more than export.

Money flies in Bangladesh, only you need to know how to net it. Critics say the only shortage we have is of political will to tax the super-rich. In my view, it is not the tax; it is the corruption that we all are part of- some by paying, and some by taking. Irony of fate is you cannot name them corrupts in fear of either contempt of court, or defamation charges! Supporting misdeeds many other corrupt lawyers and agencies are ready to help, honesty and truth is weaker and helpless. Honest people are stupid people! Others say there are many other sources that can be explored for raising domestic revenue. For example, a Padma Bridge levy on all such transactions, exceeding certain values. The levy can also be imposed on all sales in luxury shopping malls- there are many in Dhaka and major cities- as well on luxury imports such as SUVs. Problem is once it is started it continues and forgets to stop. The same was done when the Jamuna Bridge was built, and no one knows exactly what amount of money was collected and where it was spent! Many experts doubt corruptions in this case too. So, raising money from home is suspicious and it was never doubt-free and would never be corruption free – sinic like me would say.

More astonishingly, the government of Bangladesh has been adopting the policy of be-fooling its public while collecting or ransacking cash in the following ways-

-unjustifiably increasing the electricity charges; and

-imposing new taxes on bank interests;

The purpose of governance and businesses seem like similar; and both are setting objectives in making money by exploiting the public. The best measures could have been cutting government expenditures and corruptions in all walks of life. The foreign countries and donor agencies should have a say on this matter- while unnecessarily the government ministerial level delegations visiting their countries, for example- Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and other delegates of Bangladesh have got no reasons to visit foreign countries or make tour time and again. The countries they are visiting should be asked the reasons for visits and the money they’ve got for to spend. If not shouldn’t it be considered as encouraging the corruptions and misuse of public money? Global good governance should have a role in this regard. Ultimately we are in a single global village.