Dhaka: Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday said there will be no allocation in the upcoming budget for the construction of new roads and highways in the country. 

“Both in terms of demography and distance, we’ve the highest road availability. So, no new road will be constructed. Only the old ones will be repaired,” he said.

Muhith was exchanging views with the members of Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) at a consultation meeting at the Finance Ministry ahead of the next national budget preparation.

He, however, made it clear that power, energy and infrastructure sectors will continue to get the highest priority in the next fiscal allocation.

The Finance Minister said there will be a change in the budget as the human resource development sector will get a better focus than in the past.

Responding to a query about property tax, Muhith said this tax could not be implemented for various reasons, but it will be done from the next fiscal year with some changes.

About the black money whitening, he said no such scope is there in the current system and this will not be given in the future either.  He said the present government has been giving priority to domestic resource mobilisation for which the local contribution to the national budget has increased a lot. “I think, the budget in 2018 will be Tk 500,000 crore in the current trend of the budget growth,” he said.

About the land scarcity for investment by local and foreign investors, the Finance Minister said the government is taking various steps to address the problem.

He informed that Japanese investors have been given some lands in the Moheshkhali Island, which will be developed as a power generation hub.  He said the GDP growth will get close to 7 percent in the current fiscal while the target for the next fiscal will be point 2-3 percent higher.

Muhith said it was thought earlier that the economy had suffered a huge loss by the January movement. “But now, we think, the impact was only of one month.”

ERF president Sultan Mahmud, general secretary Sajjadur Rahman and secretaries of different divisions under the Finance Ministry also spoke at the meeting.