Jamaat, NCP slam proposed budget

Opposition parties Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party (NCP) on Thursday slammed the proposed national budget for fiscal year 2026–27, describing it as "anti-people but loot-friendly" and "overly ambitious." 

Speaking at a rally before a procession, Jamaat Assistant Secretary General and former MP Dr AHM Hamidur Rahman Azad alleged that the government had presented the budget to sustain party loyalists at the expense of ordinary people.

"The government has imposed a burden of taxes on the people while presenting a budget aimed at maintaining party workers," he said.

Referring to the proposed Tk 9.38 lakh crore budget—the largest in Bangladesh's history—Azad claimed that it failed to reflect the aspirations of the July Uprising and instead followed the conventional pattern of previous budgets.

He described the budget as heavily dependent on loans and taxation, arguing that it would place an additional burden on citizens while increasing the country's debt liabilities.

Azad further alleged that the size of the budget had been expanded to facilitate corruption and the misuse of development funds by ruling party activists.

"Those who formulated the budget belong to the affluent class, which is why it is a pro-rich budget. They do not understand the suffering of poor people and therefore failed to present a people-oriented budget," he said.

The National Citizen Party (NCP) dismissed the government's proposed Tk 9.38 lakh crore budget for fiscal year 2026–27 as overly ambitious and detached from economic reality, warning that the actual deficit could be nearly double the official figure.

Reacting to the budget presented in parliament by Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, NCP Shadow Budget Committee chief and Joint Convener Atik Mujahid said the stated deficit of around Tk 2.5 lakh crore masked a far graver fiscal picture.

"The actual deficit could approach Tk 4.5 lakh crore," Mujahid said, adding that the revenue collection target of Tk 6.95 lakh crore, equivalent to 10.2 percent of GDP, was simply unattainable under current economic conditions. "I believe the revenue shortfall alone could exceed Tk 2 lakh crore."

While acknowledging that the proposed outlay is the largest in Bangladesh's history, the NCP argued that it could also go down as the country's largest deficit budget in real terms.