Business community leaders, especially the readymade garment industry owners are critical of the government's stimulus package of Tk 3,424 crore that mainly focused farm, power and exports sector.

In the package the RMG sector was not included for direct incentives except existing incentives the industry is enjoying for what the Finance Minister AMA Muhit said "the export growth of the apparel exports has slowed down but not yet suffered negative growth to deserve cash assistance at the moment."

The apex business body FBCCI said the financial package the government rolled out Sunday to tackle immediate impact of global economic downturn will upset readymade garment exporters.

The FBCCI president, Annisul Huq, himself an RMG exporter, said it would be better if the package raised cash incentives for the export-focused sector.

"It is hard to find what we understand as stimulus in the context of the global recession in the package announced by the finance minister," he said.

"I can't consider it a complete stimulus package… it only addressed the concerns of three sectors from the recession-hit ones," said the apex body chief.

He said the spinning sub-sector of the textile industry has been affected badly, but it has got no specific stimulus to face the situation.

He said the apparel sector would be frustrated, although the sector has so far remained out of strong impact of the recession.

He said: "The government needs to be flexible in this regard and remain alert so it can come forward to rescue the sector from any worst situation as soon as possible."

Annisul Huq, however, appreciated the positive initiative of the government for giving some sort of economic direction before the next budget, which would have a good reflection on the internal economy.

He
said there are some good policy indications in the announcement, but they are under consideration and some of them are budgetary measures. "Those are not policy decisions," he said, adding that if implemented, the policies would yield some good results.

BGMEA president Abdus Salam Murshedy termed the package "unwanted" as it did not take steps to save the apparel sector from the aftermath of the ongoing economic meltdown.

"We see the package hardly gave any importance to the RMG sector," he told a hurriedly called press briefing at the BGMEA conference room, expressing his deep disappointment.

The BGMEA president urged the government to reconsider the stimulus package to accommodate allocations for them as a great danger is knocking at "our doors."

BKMEA, the knit sub-sector of the apparel industry, also expressed its frustration over the stimulus package as they have been ignored.

Criticising the package, BKMEA president Fazlul Haque said that he does not find any justification for increasing the subsidy allocation for the agriculture as the sector is not affected by the recession.

"The package utterly neglected the export sector," he told a press briefing at the BKMEA conference room.

Haque said Bangladesh Bank has decided to reduce the lending rate and waived the down payment for loan re-scheduling as they realised the impact of the recession. "I don't understand why the government did not pay heed to the RMG sector."

During the last three months, he said, export growth of the knit apparel sector was just five per cent as compared to its average growth of 20 per cent per year. "We've already lost US$ 450 million in the last three months," he noted.

The BKMEA president brought allegation of injustice by the government and said: "We've a good opportunity to cash in on the aftermath of the recession, but the stimulus package has strangulated that opportunity."

He urged the government to make readjustment to the allocations of the stimulus package.