"The existing provision of whitening black money by paying 7.5 per cent tax will be nullified," he said at a pre-budget consultation meeting with the Economic Reporters' Forum (ERF) yesterday.

He said he is also thinking about repealing the other provisions of the existing system like purchasing cars, apartments and plots in metropolitan areas after paying a certain amount of tax. "I was not very much conversant, but it is a serious provision and I will look into this," he said.

Last year also Saifur opposed the provision of whitening black money, terming it "unethical", but later continued with it under pressures from the black money holders.

Giving his views on the current economic situation, next budget and its priority areas, he told the meeting at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity auditorium that withdrawal of 10 per cent tax on interest income from small deposits will be considered in the next budget.

Saifur, who is scheduled to place the national budget for fiscal 2006-07 in parliament on June 8, said the next budget will focus on pro-poor growth under the framework of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).

"Otherwise, the growth will not bring any benefit for the large number of poor people," he said, referring to the recent violence at garment factories.

Pointing at the fact that the garment owners are becoming richer while their workers are deprived of the basic needs, he said, "That results in violence, and to bring a balance, a pro-poor growth is necessary."

He acknowledged the grievances among garment workers about their wages and asked the owners to resolve the crisis through discussion to avert such violence in future.

On the rise of the number of businessmen turning to politics, especially as parliament members, the minister said, "Increasing presence of businessmen in parliament often hampers national interests as every decision involves businesses.

"But, in a democratic country the government has nothing to do in this regard and it is the voters' choice who they will vote to the parliament," he added.

Saifur admitted that there is corruption in implementing the Annual Development Programme (ADP). He said slow implementation of the ADP is one of the main reasons for corruption and in the current fiscal only 45 per cent money has been spent in the first nine months.

The ministries go for a quick expenditure in the rest three months to raise the expenditure to as high as 73 per cent and that creates room for malpractice, he said.

Saifur identified the delay of payments to contractors by the government officials concerned as another main reason of corruption and slow ADP implementation.

He said implementation of the donor-funded projects is slower than those funded internally as the donors demand "more transparency and accountability" in releasing funds.

He opposed different ministers' plea that "unnecessary conditions" of the donors hamper smooth implementation of the projects. The donors' conditions are to check corruption and for the proper utilisation of their tax payers' money, he said.

The World Bank (WB) recently cancelled some projects of different ministries on allegations of corruption, Saifur told the ERF members. Citing his discussion with WB officials, he said the donor agency told him that they have enough document of corruption in these projects.

Although the government has enacted the Procurement Act to check corruption, it is not enough, Saifur said, adding, "I am not optimistic that a mere act will stop corruption. We need moral regeneration campaign against such malpractices."

He expected that the GDP growth will reach seven per cent. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, however, predicted the figure at 6.7 per cent.