Anti-corruption drive will spare no one: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday announced that implementing the proposed budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year will propel the country forward. During her budget speech in parliament, she warned that the government has launched a stringent anti-corruption campaign, and those involved in corruption, regardless of who they are, will face severe consequences.

The premier noted that although default loans in the banking sector are decreasing, a certain group is attempting to inflate the numbers through manipulation.

"In 2009, when the country's GDP was $102.6 billion, default loans in the banking system amounted to TK 220 billion, or 10.5 percent of the GDP. But now, with a GDP of $460 billion, default loans stand at TK 155,000 crore, which is 9.9 percent of the GDP," the prime minister stated in the House.

She felt that some individuals are trying to exaggerate the increase in default loans in the banking system by presenting them as amounts rather than percentages.

Defending the black money whitening provision in the proposed budget, she mentioned that rising prices have turned even a person owning a katha of land in the capital into a millionaire.