The Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCI) has expressed strong reservations about the proposed national budget for fiscal year 2025-26, calling it inadequate for fostering investment and industrial development.
BCI President Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury stated the budget appears more focused on revenue generation than creating business confidence, with its heavy reliance on increased corporate and individual taxes making it fundamentally anti-investment.
Chowdhury highlighted several concerning aspects of the fiscal plan, including elevated taxes on construction materials that threaten the housing sector’s viability, along with persistent operational challenges like high banking rates, unreliable energy supply, and soaring transport costs that continue to burden businesses.
He particularly criticised the decision to raise turnover tax for small entrepreneurs from 0.6% percent to 1%, warning this would disproportionately impact micro and small businesses already struggling to survive.
While acknowledging some measures might reflect IMF conditions, Chowdhury lamented the absence of compensatory growth strategies for domestic or export sectors. He warned these policies would erode industrial competitiveness without offering corresponding development roadmaps.
The BCI chief also challenged the budget’s optimistic inflation projections, arguing that with depleted household savings, stagnant incomes, and shrinking private investment due to energy uncertainties and political instability, price stability remains unlikely unless consumption collapses entirely – which would signal economic disaster.
Painting a grim picture of current business sentiment, Chowdhury noted entrepreneurs have shifted from expansion plans to survival mode amid election uncertainties and deteriorating law-and-order conditions.
He cautioned this defensive posture would likely accelerate job losses and deepen economic stagnation, emphasising that without addressing chronic energy insecurity or providing a political stability roadmap, the budget fails to tackle the economy’s fundamental challenges.
The BCI president concluded that the inflation control measures appear divorced from ground realities, while the SME sector faces increased burdens without adequate support mechanisms to compensate.