Dependence on foreign assistance to operate government operations and formulate the budget is falling. Though 5 per cent of the total budget is earmarked for foreign aid, the government is now making budget with own resources.
Foreign assistance comes in two ways: loan and aid. To fulfil the deficit in the budget, the Economic Relations Division, ERD, is given the task to accumulate foreign support.
Finance minister, A H M Mustafa Kamal, has said: “The amount of foreign support is being reduced considerably, with only five per cent now added to the budget.”
Bangladesh is self-sufficient to formulate its own budget, he observed.
ERD sources say that in the last 12 years, the government got pledges of up to $ 79.63 billion as foreign assistance while only $ 37.71 billion was released.
ERD sources say that in the 2017-18 fiscal year, Bangladesh got pledges of support ranging up to $ 2935. 64 million from the World Bank followed by Japan with $ 1813.21 million.
Former finance and planning adviser to the caretaker government, Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam, said: “The pledge and the release of the fund depends on the assisting country or the organization.”
They give certain conditions and proper fulfilment of these clauses influence the amount of money to be released, he added.
The three main conditions are: transparency, good governance and accountability.
Former finance minister Abul Maal Muhith says: “In the last ten years, the pledges and the money released against those promises by international donors was satisfactory.”
The former finance minister said that in the last two years of his tenure, the highest amount of foreign assistance was pledged.
But we do not have to rely on foreign support any more and can make budget on our own resources, asserted the former finance minister.