Commenting that there is nothing new in the proposed budget, Salehuddin Ahmed said, “The budget has been presented at a challenging time. But I don’t see anything new in it. The figures of the previous budget have only been tweaked here and there. It is being said that the budget is contractionary but if you look at the budget deficit, it won’t not seem contractionary.”

Dependency on bank loans to meet the budget deficit has increased and this will have a negative impact on the private sector, said Salehuddin Ahmed.

He further said, “If the government takes more loans, how would the private sector get loans? And if the private sector does not get loans, how will there be employment?”

He thinks the small and medium industries (SME) sector will also be affected due to the proposed budget.