(BSS) – Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed today said that the interim government has tried its best to deliver a people-oriented and business-friendly budget while the main goal is to award a practical, pragmatic and implementable budget.

“Despite having many adversities, we want to move ahead with cooperation from all. We want to improve the living standards of people and thus move forward the country so that Bangladesh becomes an example in the international arena,” he said.

The Finance Adviser flanked by other advisers and senior officials of the government was addressing a post-budget press conference at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital this afternoon.

Planning Adviser Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud, Home and Agriculture Adviser Lt Gen. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Power, Energy, Mineral Resources, Road Transport and Bridges and Railways Adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, Commerce Adviser Sk. Bashir Uddin, Cabinet Secretary Sheikh Abdur Rashid, Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Finance Secretary Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder, and NBR Chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan spoke, among others, at the press conference.

Earlier on Monday, Dr Salehuddin Ahmed unveiled a Taka 7,90,000 crore national budget for the FY26 through a pre-recorded televised speech since the Jatiya Sangsad is not in place.

Mentioning that the proposed budget for the next fiscal year has been a bit smaller from the previous fiscal year (FY25) for the first time in the country’s history amid the challenges in inflation, energy sector, banking sector and revenue sector, he said, “You’ve heard about the narratives of growth over the years, but its benefits didn’t reach to the common people equally.”

Coming out of this growth perception, he said that growth is needed, but the most important things are to improve the living standards of people, raising their purchasing power, restoring fully the law and order situation and thus ensuring a congenial atmosphere for boosting the trade and commerce operations.

“The path ahead of us is not smooth rather rough … we’ve garnered both local and foreign resources. We’ve reorganized the revenue board and the tax system. We’re bringing more support from abroad through negotiations and we’re also working on our debt sustainability,” he added.

Citing that the proposed budget for FY26 is not ‘as usual’, Dr Salehuddin said that there has been a clear continuity of policy measures in the budget while it was not possible to deviate fully from the existing trend.

“It’s not possible to deliver a revolutionary budget overnight, rather there are some courageous steps like concessions in tax, restoring fiscal discipline, policy continuity,” he said, adding that the available suggestions and opinions would be considered before finalizing the budget at the end of this month.

He also called upon the countrymen and the media personnel to come up with a collaborative approach and making positive criticism to implement the budget and thus taking the country ahead.

“Historically, the performance of Bangladesh is good. Our pace was a bit sloth before we assumed responsibility, but we’re trying to moving forward … our goal is to make transparent the livelihood of common people, putting due attention on safety nets. Every country of the world alongside the development partners poses a very positive impression about Bangladesh,” he added.

When asked about the provision for whitening the undisclosed money in the budget, Dr Salehuddin Ahmed said that it is not so easy to recover the stolen assets since those who launder money are intelligent people.

He alleged that the money launderers siphon off money through layering, but the government is tracing those out although it would take some time.

Citing that it took 20 years for Nigeria to bring back the laundered money, he said that the process has already begun to recover the stolen assets or siphoned off money.

“However, it’s true that if we could have availed that laundered money from abroad, then we hadn’t have such need for budget support even support from the IMF,” he said.

The Finance Adviser said if the government could have brought back the laundered money from abroad, could have collected more tax, could have checked tax evasion, could have curbed corruption fully, then there would have no such need for budget support.

Citing the immense potentials of the country, he urged all to seize such potentials keeping pace with time.

“We’re now heading towards the highway navigating through the village roads and gradually this road will be widened,” he added.

Mentioning that reforms are going on in different sectors, he said that this government would carry out reform initiatives as much as it can and thus leave a footprint before the successive government to pursue those.

The Finance Adviser said that the main context of the budget was that the limited resources against huge demands in various sectors side by side the most important challenge while framing the budget was on how to mobilize the local resources alongside resources from the foreign sources considering the global condition.

Apart from this, he said that restoring the economic situation as well as law and order situation was also a challenge since most of the entities were destroyed during the previous regime. “We had to work in such condition and thus frame the budget amid resource constraints based on the local resources and support from foreign sources,” he added.