The System of Land Ownership and Its Effect on Agricultural Production: The Case of Ghana

Most African continents have pressing issues on individual rights to property and natural resources, given the relatively poor economic conditions and the belief of personal ownership to a property right (Joireman, 2008). Ghana, like many African countries like Mozambique and Uganda, have laws to the right of property that is the traditional system of land rights. Most of the African countries depend on the large share of natural capital from the natural resources for the economic growth of the country. Some emerging economies can have sustained economic growth due to their reliance on natural resources such as oil and gas. This paper investigates property rights, land ownership, and land inheritance and their effect on agricultural production in Ghana. To undertake this research, a sample of 35 respondents were analysed using the SPSS software. The analysis was based on characteristics such as gender, age, and educational level of the respondents. The research results indicate that men inherit more than women, and family ownership is the most popular type of land inheritance in Ghana. Also, people with a lower level of education are likely to inherit the land and own land. Finally, the patrilineal system is the most popular system of inheritance in Ghana.

Introduction
There has been a debate about the conception gathered on the property rights and its rules that have been set in a country by politicians or political economist (Schelager & Ostrom, 1992;May, 2015). This has created resource degradation and environmental problems in most countries, mainly the developing world. In the developing world, including Ghana, the welfare of the individual, households, and communities mostly depend on natural resources, be it renewable or non-renewable. Thus, property rights to resources are significantly essential in governing natural resources. Furthermore, the welfare of the individual or household depends immensely on renewable resources; therefore, property rights to resources play a fundamental role in regulating the patterns of natural resource management. Policies set by the government that shape property rights contribute to significant roles in promoting the country's economic growth, equity of distribution, and the sustainability of the resource base (Meinzen-Dick, Brown, Feldstein, & Quisumbing, 1997;May, 2015). The progress of property rights on natural resources in the world has a significant advantage in both the household income and economic investment. Therefore, the role of the state regarding property rights helps formulate laws in codifying and protecting such rights as well as to provide the preconditions for economic growth.
Natural resources can be identified as the type of resources found and used that comes from the natural environment. These natural resources can be distinguished by its natural state or man-made state. Most of the resources found in the natural environment cannot be identified as man-made resources. Therefore, it can be argued that property rights immensely influence control of resources (land and natural). There have been questions raised on the issue of property rights regarding who has the rights to what resources such as land, who has access to these resources and who has responsibilities for the management of these resources. Property rights on land such as agricultural lands, forest resources, freshwater, and coastal resources, wild species of plants or animals or watersheds create incentives and disincentives for sustainable management and governance of natural resources.
for environmental services and other revenue-generating activities. Becker (2014) examines the overall reasons concerning the systems of private property rights and discusses the main arguments that influence the rights and responsibilities of property ownership. Based on this argument, natural resources derived occupancy, labor, utility, liberty, and virtue with the standard anti-property and the belief and process that distribution must take precedence over private ownership.
As indicated by Heltberg (2002), developing countries depend mostly on several important ways in their natural capital. Peasants, fishermen, and cattle in Africa and other developing countries earn their living directly from the utilization of natural resources such as farmlands, water, air, forest, grazing areas, plants, and animals. In most of these countries, the resources are increasingly exposed to unsustainable exploitation, pollution and conversion to other uses. When natural resources degrade or perish, the livelihoods of the people disappear that aggravate problems of rural property, food insecurity, and rural-urban migration.

Land Ownership Right
Property rights can be described as an area where an individual or group can own and control the resource and by giving them the ability to exclude others from using or encroaching on the resources. In general, land disputes can be seen as typical, where two parties may have conflicts over the rights to land. In today's economy, property ownership, or the rights to use and the transfer of ownership can be created based on the contact that can be described as property rights (Amacher & Malik, 1996). Property rights can be understood as a web of interest that aids different parties with the legal rights that can be based on customary or local norms and state laws within a country Meinzen-Dick and Mwangi (2008). This helps manage and regulates these rights to property and natural resources, either renewable or non-renewable resources. Moreover, property rights allow owners to make informed decisions on the use of their properties, for instance, on economic activities. The property right is defined as ownership to use, to exclude others from taking control and the right to transfer ownership to another, for example, land (Becker, 2014). The rights of property are legally assigned to the individual and are entitled to the rights of the property. As examined by Alchian (1989), property right is a socially enforced right to the owner and select the use of economic goods thus legally assigned to an individual and is entitled with the rights over the assets. Property rights entail the relationship between people or groups (Bromley, 1991). This, however, includes more than just a title or a piece of paper specifying the ownership of a property like land or other resources.
The right to property incorporates a diverse set of tenure rules and other aspects to the use and ownership of resources. Property rights describe the legal ownership of resources and how they are used. These resources are either renewable or non-renewable and can be owned by individuals, associations, or government. In many countries, individuals exercise their rights to property, either holding, renting or to sell the property. It is believed that an individual capacity to own and manage a property describes its right to the property and the relationship between people or groups. This involves more than a title deed or a piece of paper to a property that specifies the ownership of the property like land or other resources. Merrill and Smith (2001) stated that some economic scholars consider and argue that property rights can be described as the ownership rights that are generated and controlled over the property and resources (Becker, 2014). The rights of these properties thus need to be fixed and the need to portray the relationships among the parties. However, some forms of property rights include:  The common property where there is a collective property that is owned, managed and controlled by the joint owner, such as groups or associations of individuals. Due to the joint ownership form of this property, individuals can overcome and manage conflicts through the shared benefit and enforcement of responsibilities. enough capital and influence can take the land that may belong to another individual. This can be said to be land grabbing that leads to poverty (Kugbega, 2018).

Inheritance
This can be described as the transfer of assets such as properties, titles, and rights from one person to another. The capabilities and limitations for the enactment of the property rights in Africa to recognize overlapping interests can be considered to preserve environmental functions and thus help protect the livelihood of the poor (Ikdahl, Hellum, Kaarhus, Benjaminsen, & Kameri-Mbote, 2005). This has been resurfaced with the development policies in land tenure systems, such as changes in the rules governing the access, use, transfer, and validation of land and natural resources. Inheritance consists of the following: Customary land ownership, individual or private ownership, State ownership (Blocher, 2006).

Customary Land Ownership System
In Africa, customary land ownership system legally recognizes the existing rights that are subject to minimum conditions (Deininger 2003). Customary land ownership is more effective with the legal recognition of members and owners of the land that greatly ensures less conflict and enhances occupants' security. Based on this ideology of customary land systems, the demarcations of the land boundaries in these countries enable communities to avoid outsiders encroaching on their properties. This ensures that the authorities of the community set up a well-defined rule of assigning land within a community and help manage the rights on the property for the people in the community. A country like Ghana has almost 80 percent of the land under the customary tenure system (Kasanga & Kotey, 2001). Most countries have laws that are legally binding as to regards to property ownership. In addition, properties can be acquired and owned by individuals or associations through leasing, sale, or inheritance. A notable example is in Africa, particularly Ghana, whereby properties and resources are owned by individuals through inheritance. The traditional land tenure system in Ghana indicates how the customary authority, like the tribal chiefs, have claim and control over the rights of property in the region and grant claims and regulates in any form of a land transfer (Lastarria-Cornhiel, 1997;Peters, 2013).
These forms of laws of the rights to property by the customary chiefs are granted on a long-term agreement basis or transfer of ownership. However, due to the increasing population in Africa, the rights on land and other resources have become intense for individual ownership of land as such emphasizing the individualistic rights, granting the ability to transfer the property without needing a community sanction. The land rights and laws in Ghana typically follow a particular ideal form of the communal land tenure system that governs the individualistic right to property (Kasanga & Kotey, 2001). An example sighted by Bruce (1988) relates to the property rights on land being recognized by the court to be existing "family land" where the rights and control of these lands are owned by the larger kinship groups in the society. This system of land ownership is operated by a household head; thus, the rights and regulations imposed on the sale or lease of land by the household to the individuals that lease the properties may not have the ability to exercise their rights (de facto). Indigenous tenure systems pose a degree of insecurity, for example, by destroying incentives to plant tree crops. This is evident when property owners with temporal or fragile titles have succeeded in planting a tree to enhance their tenure systems. Deininger (2003) explains this form of ownership as considered formal ownership of land titles in Africa, particularly in the case of Ghana. There is an inefficient land administration in countries like Ghana that does not ensure a secure form of land demarcations of the land boundaries in the communities. There is a lack of transparency as to who owns such kind of land. A situation as this requires an institution with sufficient government conditions that can be a precondition for the state to deliver a valid property right for the landowners accurately.

State Ownership
There is a significant investment opportunity of the state land system and helps occupants make essential decisions and efforts to increase their level of security and, at the same time, are vulnerable to evict threats. Deininger (2003), observes how this kind of system has limited land rights; as such, the occupant is not able to make full use of the land. The legal rights placed on these lands to regularise the importance of their possessions of the property, and institutions can lease the land for a long-term to both lenders and borrowers. This allows land to be transferred to different occupants.

Land Tenure System in Ghana
Land tenure can be defined as the process that an individual or group of people hold concerning land and other land-based resources such as minerals and trees. This aims at analysing the social, political, and customary relationship of land inheritance in Ghana. The tenure system in Ghana focuses on the land ownership distribution and the rights imposed on land use in the country (Ubink & Quan, 2008). Property rights do not only look at the relationship but also focuses on the structure that governs the access to natural resources, which provides the opportunities and reward patterns in land use. The tenure system can regulate the individual's security that influences social stability and the individual income and expenditure patterns of land use. In conclusion, property rights provide individuals with security, confidence, and social support. Land and natural resources control and ownership in Ghana are a bit complicated with the kind of tenure systems whereby the stool controls land within a community, the rights of the properties, on the other hand, can belong to different people.
In Ghana, there are two types of the land tenure system that are typically described as the customary and statutory land tenure system. The customary land system looks at the norms, customs, and traditions on the land rights within a society (Yeboah & Shaw, 2013). This kind of tenure system has been in existence since the colonial days with enacted laws and its judiciary precedents. Dadson (2006), describes this kind of law as explicit with rules founding its legitimacy from the traditions and custom norms in the society as a result of the linkage of the local cultural practices. The statutory land tenure system, on the other hand, is a legislative enactment of government policies that include the land registration system and the land-use planning system (Agbosu, 2000).

Land Rights Management
There have been several laws such as the mineral policies and taxation codes put in place to regulate the mining sector in sub-Saharan Africa from the beginning of the political atmosphere that brought about an increase in the participation of the mining mineral resources (Hilson & Yakovleva, 2007). Property rights to land and natural resources consist of total control and management over that resource. This is the ability to use the resources, which is the most valuable and that being the most important form of property control for an individual with the ownership title on the resources. Nyame and Blocher (2010), explained that from the norm of post-colonial Africa, there had been stated participation of commercial enterprises, which includes mining seen both in national and civil leadership from the beginning were laws were promulgated through a decree by the military regimes. Nyame and Blocher (2010) further examines the primary government objective during the post-colonial days was the seizure of minerals or the lands which brought little or no input to the landowners and stakeholders. The successful elected government amended to accommodate individual and customary land ownership that resulted in the formal state system. This form of the system has been the most accessible and familiar mechanism of land tenure for many miners and landowners, especially in Africa.
Ghana has been recognized for long as one of the richest mining countries in Africa. Hence, the colonial name derived from the mining possibilities as Gold Coast. Nyame and Blocher (2010) indicated the rights of individual landowners who could generally claim a portion of the land and the minerals mined on the land before and during the colonial era, which varied according to the relevant customary rules. For instance, the paramount chiefs of the Akan areas in Ghana were entitled to gold mined in the community. Due to the diverse tribe and jas.ccsenet.org Journal of Agricultural Science Vol. 12, No. 5; ethical groups in Ghana, there was no uniformity in the customary law regarding the extraction of minerals in the country. Based on the current mining system, most mine developers may negotiate with traditional rulers in the acquisition of the minerals mined in the community, unlike in the past where there were no clear boundaries that distinguished land (Quisumbing, 2001). The demand for land placed on mines has led to conflict among family or community over ownership of land, which is a major source of livelihoods of many rural communities and mostly poor people in the community (Hilson, 2002).

Effects of Land Ownership on Natural Resources
Deininger (2003) indicates owning a property in the developing world can be a crucial advantage economic activity of an individual. More than 80 percent of land in Ghana is not registered and mostly belongs to family members with no clear title deeds of ownership. Therefore, this affects the individuals in need of land for agriculture purposes (Deininger, 2003). This form of land ownership and inheritance system in Ghana deprives the people of owning the land with the women most affected due to the bargaining power within the family (Lambrecht, 2016). Deere, Oduro, Swaminathan, and Doss (2013) emphases on the ability to take advantage of economic opportunities and cope with risks and, most importantly, for the welfare of the household.
Land reforms in Africa were considered an extraordinary case with its abundance of the land. Still, in recent times, land in Africa is scared due to the high population growth affecting the socio-economic development of the individual and economy. The lack of land markets, however, prevents the emergence of private land rights and security in particular land property and hinders the development of agriculture as a result of avoiding farmers from expanding on their holdings (Amanor, 1999;Holden, Kaarhus, & Lunduka, 2006). This, however, hinders the improvement for the small-scale farmers since they have inadequate credit facilities and are not able to use their land titling as collateral to expand their holdings. Based on this, it can be said that the increasing population pressure in the country affects the commercialization of the agricultural systems. Land rights have led to a low or decrease in land productivity as a result of lack of infrastructure, low level of technology, and market efficiency (Amanor, 1999).
In the case of Ghana, most women lose their title to land as soon as their husbands die as such their rights to food is taken away from them. The increase of the public discussion on governance and its emphasis on the governance issues with policy deliberations aided with the effect of institutional quality on economic performance (Leite & Weidmann, 1999;Dellepiane-Avellaneda, 2010). There have been researches on the malfunctioning of government institutions on natural resources, e.g., Shleifer and Vishny (1993); Mehlum, Moene, and Torvik (2006), who debated that most of the developing countries face dysfunction of the government institutions that in turn harm the economic performances through a decrease of both the incentive and opportunities to invest and innovate. Among the difference in governmental policies in developing countries, corruption has received particular publicity, mostly in developing countries by both policymakers and researchers. Government corruption, as examined by Shleifer and Vishny (1993), is the sale by government officials of government properties for personal gain. The customary and legal systems of the coexistence of property rights are a common phenomenon that, in most cases, results in the undervaluation of land in Ghana. This, however, implies that there could be a great benefit of the utilization of these resources for both the customary and legal management systems in Ghana. Potential conflicts of interest may arise due to the overlapping of property rights regimes between different interest groups, such as within the local level and the national level.
Based on the effects of property rights, there can laws put in place to govern and reinforce the rights to the property. Property rights to land in Ghana should uphold laws stating the removal of chemicals such as mercury from the land that could benefit the individuals that own the land. To improve the outcome of natural resource management policies and projects in terms of their efficiency, environmental sustainability, equity, and empowerment of the use of resources, attention must be given to the gender differences in property rights within Africa. Though it may be impossible to generalize across cultures, it is essential to identify the right of the individual, be it, man or woman, to obtain the right to land, water, and other resources.

Land Inheritance and Poverty
Land ownership is a critical asset that provides the people living in the rural and urban areas a means of livelihood through the production and sale of crops that generates income and provides rights for housing for the poor within those communities from the sale of these crops (Meinzen-Dick, Kameri-Mbote, & Markelova, 2009). Property rights in the developing world are very important in determining the people's right to land and the entitlement to food that helps break the poverty transmission.
The link between property rights and poverty can go a long way when the government may forcefully take an individual's private property for the development of the economy and, in return, pays the people little or no compensation (Deininger, 2003). This is due to the situation that not only poor people, mostly in Africa, lack basic income, but also these people do not have ownership of assets such as land to be able to generate income. Ghana is predominantly an agricultural country that depends mostly on its earning from cultivated small farmland for agricultural production.
Meinzen-Dick et al. (2009) examines that millions of the urban and the rural poor living in the informal settlement, such as the slams, may lack access to land or their rights to the land which may not be formally or legally recognized by the state. For poverty to reduce in the developing world in the case of Ghana is to readdress this ambiguity through legislation to provide a more secure land tenure system to the poor in these countries. In Africa, the rural and urban poor people understand the concept of land as the most important asset that provides a means of livelihood through farming and sale of land to prospective investors. Meinzen-Dick, R. et al. (2009) further examines the relationship between property rights and poverty reduction as a result of gender equity to land.

Land Ownership and Transgenerational Equity
Transgenerational equity may have both positive and negative effects on the distribution and value of resources. Due to the vast increase in the human capital and improvement of utilization of resources, generations focus mainly on the growing production of their capital through the utilization of their natural resources (Gylfason & Zoega, 2006). Based on this idea, it can be argued that generations have clarity on how to influence market welfare. This can be described as a long-term generational consequences that enables an individual to inherit their natural and social resources through a transfer process. In Ghana, some culture enjoys the benefits and rights to inherits land resources that have been conserved and transferred to the next generation. The Akan tribe from Ghana has enjoyed the inheritance that can be transferred from the deceased man to his brother or nephew. Furthermore, it argues that the Akan tribe allows sons to inherit land from their matrilineal relatives. They conclude by stating that recently the Akan tribe also allows inheritance from husband to wife and children as a form of gifts.

Litigation and Conflicts as a Result of Land Ownership
Land conflicts are a widespread phenomenon and occur frequently. Need, greed, scarcity, and the increase in land value are the common causes of land disputes (Wehrmann, 2008). According to Loode, Nolan, Brown, and Clements (2009), land disputes types are:  Land administration: This occurs between customary landowners and the government. This involves the transfer of land without no records or tangible evidence.
 Land tenure disputes: Use and denial of use of any communally owned land to either individual, rivalries over membership, or influence in land-owning groups. Disagreements as a result of the use of village land or townland by communities. This dispute also involves conflicts such as the use of village or townland by communities due to customary inheritance laws.
 Disputes over land boundaries: Arises as a result of community members seeking to fulfil their needs for more exclusive demarcation of land.
The authors (Loode et al., 2009) further state that conflict resolution processes exist to ensure. The processes can be: customary (traditionally based and can be held anytime without costs being incurred or any delays, for instance using third parties such as chiefs, elders or witnesses); introduced processes (land commissions, land registration, and recording, land boards, ordinary courts, land tribunals, and land courts).
In addition, Immanuel (2010) further reiterates that major reforms have been done to address these disputes. For instance, restitution, redistribution, inheritance, independent ownership, co-ownership, registration of family or clan land and joint titling are among the other actions that have been undertaken in various countries to curb land conflicts.
In Ghana, land disputes, litigations, and other related problems came about due to the lack of written data or records on land ownership (Kasanga & Kotey, 2001). Ghana has several informal land markets that lead to disputes as a result of a lack of documentation. This results form about 80% of the land system ownership that is held by the customary landowners, family heads, and traditional authorities.

Materials and Methods
The paper seeks to focus on property rights and its effect on agricultural production in Ghana. The purpose of this paper is to achieve quantitative research which was applied with attention to the questionnaire survey as a jas.ccsenet.org Journal of Agricultural Science Vol. 12, No. 5; method of data collection in Ghana. The questionnaires were administered online, and some to randomly selected individuals. Such surveys are the main sources of information to set strategies aimed at meeting needs or understanding of perceptions, most importantly showing relationships and possible areas of improvement (Munari, Ielasi, & Bajetta, 2013).
This study targeted a total of 50 respondents at random who are residing in urban and rural areas in Ghana. However, due to limitations such as unwillingness to provide more information on unclear answers and some people asking for money to participate in the interviews, this research only yielded a total of 35 respondents, as shown in the results chapter. Also, the data set was screened for code violations and missing data, using SPSS descriptive statistics and visual inspection by the researcher.
Furthermore, the following assumptions were set for this research based on extensive literature review: Interviews checklist was based on opinions from experts and findings from past researches. The paper sort to examine 50 respondents who are residing in urban and rural areas in Ghana. However, due to the limited number of respondents willing to provide information during the interview regarding their properties, the research only yielded a total of 35 respondents, as shown in the results chapter. Furthermore, the following assumptions were set for this research based on extensive literature review: The assumptions were set for this research: SA1: Men inherit more property than women.
SA2: Family ownership is the most popular type of land ownership in Ghana SA3: Education level is a key determinant of land inheritance and ownership. SA4: Patrilineal system of inheritance is practiced more in Ghana than the matrilineal system.
Software SPSS 22.0 and descriptive statistics are employed to analyse data. The significance level used is 0.05. Moreover, Pearson's chi-square test is used to test the assumptions as indicated above. (1) Equations 1 and 2 depict the investigation of homogeneity of the mentioned values that are associated to a particular class (column or row).
Equation 3 indicates the minimisation of the variance that has been obtained between model and observation.
(4) Equation 4 shows the minimization of the X 2 statistic.
Where, x 2 = Test statistic of a χ 2 distribution; nij = Observed cell count/frequency of the ith class; ni°j = Expected cell count/frequency of the ith class.
Where, fli is female land inheritance, mli is male land inheritance, si is system of inheritance (si p = patrilineal system and si m = matrilineal system), edusu is educational level of successor and tfam is type of family ownership (tfam c = customary, tfam i = individual and tfam s = state) and e is error component.

Results
The respondents were categorized into two categories as depicted in Tables 1.  Vol. 12, No. 5; Family ownership (75%) is the main type of land ownership in Ghana. The option was statistically preferred by respondents under the age of 30 and those with higher education. Respondents with lower education (56%) statistically acknowledged private ownership as their type of land ownership compared to those with higher education (38%). Those over age 50 have properties through private ownership (53%). Other types of land ownership (e.g. customary freehold) statistically influence ownership based on gender and age. Government ownership is the least type of land ownership. In Ghana, 62% of land inheritance is acquired through a patrilineal system. In terms of gender, more men (66%) have acquired land as a result of the patrilineal system than women (55%). Those with lower education have more patrilineal inheritance than those with higher education.
Regression of acres of land: female land inheritance: male land inheritance: patrilineal system: matrilineal system: education and type of family ownership (customary, individual, and state). Note. * p < .1; ** p < .05; *** p < .01; Matrilineal system of inheritance (si m ) omitted because of collinearity; Type of family ownership (tfam s ) by state omitted because of collinearity.
The results show an R-squared of 79 percent, which means that about 79 percent of the variations in agricultural production (proxy by acres of land) is explained by the independent variables considered. The results show a positive effect of the variable, land inherited by females on agricultural production. This can mean that the more females inherit the land, the likelihood there is an increase in agricultural production. As represented in Table 5 above, education has a significant effect on agricultural production. This means that the more people who inherit land are educated, the higher the increase in agricultural production. Also, the practice of customary land ownership has a significant effect on agricultural production as compared to individual ownership system. Finally, it is observed in the results that male land inheritance has a negative effect on agricultural production. This is so because most of the men that inherit land is some communities mostly practice fishing rather than farming.

Discussion
Based on the sample from 35 respondents (62.86% were male and of 37.14% were female), this research found that 64% of Ghanaians have inherited the land. Furthermore, the results showed that men (68%) had inherited more than women (59%). The results further indicated that Ghanaians agents 30 years and above inherit more than the lower age groups. Therefore, scientific assumption 1 (men inherit more property than women) had confirmed. This result is further reinforcing research work by FAO (2019) who quote from Doss et al. (2011) that property owner as of 2010 in Ghana for females was 38% and 62% by males. Also, Whitehead and Tsikata (2003) explain that women's rights to property ownership are limited, thus increase voice for statutory reforms to secure more property ownership rights for women. This was also evident from the result of the multiple regression analysis that shows a positive effect of female land inheritance on agricultural production. This means that advocating for female land inheritance is crucial to increase agricultural production.
Different type of land ownerships exists in Ghana. They include private, family, government, and rented. The analysis showed that family ownership (75%) is a popular form of land ownership in Ghana. This was statistically preferred by respondents below the age of 30 years and those with a lower level of education. In addition, people with lower education (83%) are more prone to own family land than people with higher education (69%). Private ownership (50%) is the second most popular form of land ownership, followed by rented (18%) and then government ownership (17%). The respondents also outlined other types of land inheritance (17%), such as customary freehold. The research results are in agreement with Deininger (2003), who states that in Ghana land ownership is family-based that is mainly used for agricultural activities. Furthermore, the patrilineal system (62%) is the most popular form of land inheritance in Ghana than Matrilineal (26%). Of the respondents, 12% opted not to answer the question regarding the type of inheritance system. Besides, the patrilineal system was favored more by respondents with lower education.
The above test results have therefore confirmed assumptions 2 (family ownership is the most popular type of land ownership in Ghana), 3 (education level is a crucial determinant of land inheritance and ownership), and 4 (patrilineal system of inheritance is practiced more in Ghana than matrilineal system).
As quoted by Eliana La Ferrara et al. (2014), property rights can be made more secure with the inheritance of resources from the father or uncle in a family to the male child. It can be argued that even though fathers may have ownership of land right when it comes to the matrilineal norms in the Ghanaian society, it is believed that the uncles from the maternal side have no control of the land and thus gives more importance to educating the child. As such, in order to strengthen the poor people's control over the assets can be through multiple sources on poverty interventions.

Conclusion
This paper investigated the property rights and its effect on natural resources in Ghana through the use of a questionnaire survey as a method of data collection and based on the recommendations from (Munari, Ielasi & Bajetta, 2013). A total of 35 respondents were valid for this paper. Data from the questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 software.
The findings indicate that men have the upper hand when it comes to inheritance, and they usually inherit more than women. However, the multiple regression results showed a positive effect of female land inheritance on agricultural production, which means support should be given to the advocacy of more female land inheritance in Ghana. Family ownership is the popular form of land ownership in Ghana; education level determines land inheritance and ownership, and the patrilineal system is widely practiced in Ghana as a system of inheritance.
Furthermore, the findings of this study have important implications for scientific research. The paper enriches the already available literature by providing more current literature on property rights, land ownership, and land inheritance in Ghana. To policymakers, it is essential for them to strengthen laws that protect land inheritance and ownership for women as it was evident that men are more prone to inherit than women. In addition, female land inheritance was found to have a highly positive significant effect on the increase in agricultural production.
Future research should focus on ways and policies that can be implemented to ensure equal rights of land inheritance and ownership in the society irrespective of age, gender, and education.


Analysis of Trend and Sources of Government Budget Deficit Financing in Bangladesh

Budget deficit is one of the most significant macroeconomic issues which have been debated both in the academic and political arena since 1970s. This study aims to explore the current position of government budget deficit, its trends, and sources of budget deficit financing in Bangladesh, covering the duration between 1980 to 2018. Secondary data has been used which was collected from the Bangladesh Economic Review and the World Bank. Data has been analyzed through descriptive methods. The Government financing budget deficit from two sources like domestic and foreign sources. The study finds that Government finances most of its budget deficit from the domestic sources than foreign sources especially from non-banks sources due to the increase in the net sale of national savings certificates while borrowing from bank sources is on the decline. Along with the effective measures of generating more internal resources, the government should also focus on other areas to reduce the budget deficit. The government should be taking the approapriate steps to make progressively investable resources and generate a fund for financing the non-development spending in reducing the reliance on debt that can guarantee more distribution on the development sector.

Over the years, Bangladesh has experienced continuous budget deficits and rising debt levels accompanied by a fall in revenue sources. Even though the economy is growing, there is a slow-down within the growth because of increasing government expenditure relative to the revenue. Therefore, the financing of budget deficit requires more borrowing and external credits, because the collection of revenue is slower as opposed to total expenditure. There are various causes of budget deficits. The foremost being when the actual revenues collected fall short of the projected amount. This may be attributed to low economic performance affecting the power of the government to gather enough. The other causes may be due to the alters in weather outlook that suppresses the productivity of an economy, the uncertainty that dampens the travel industry, outer elements like the worldwide emergency that reduces the private and public speculations, catastrophic events like dry spells, floods, and tropical storms that demolish resources and hamper economic functions.
According to the Bangladesh Economic Review (2018), the total budget deficit (excluding grants) for FY 2017-18 was projected at BDT 1.120.41 billion, which is around five percent of GDP. In funding the deficit, the Government depends on both domestic and international sources. Domestic sources are growing steadily financing this deficit. In recent times the collection of funds from the selling of NSCs by the government has been increasing rapidly. Whereas in recent times borrowing money from the banking system has been in a downward trend. The NSD share as a percentage of GDP (2.1 percent of GDP) actually exceeded bank borrowing (0.9 % of GDP) in FY18. It can be argued that a decrease in borrowing from the banking system will stimulate investment by the private sector that reduces the crowdingout effect resulting from government borrowing from banking industries.
On the other hand, the fund raising from selling NSCs will induce savers by delivering positive real returns as well as ensuring the net marginal families' social safety. Although it has higher cost implications for the Government, it is true that for the economic development of our country deficit budget is important, but there remains a question of how far the maintenance of the amount of 5 percent of GDP, which is equivalent to almost 30 percent of the total budget, is reasonable. It is important to bear in mind that budget deficit increases the national debt, which will lead to more national debts requiring to pay higher interest and the greater interest cost plays a positive role to extend the budget deficit (Hossain, 2014).
The pathway of deficit budgeting states that the fiscal responsibility act deficits should not exceed 3 percent of GDP (World Bank, 2010). According to Kwanashie (2013), these conditions are gained if the size of the total budget deficit is around 3 percent of GDP.
Bangladesh's macroeconomic stability relies heavily on government budget strategies. But reducing budget deficits is a dynamic mechanism that relies on a wide range of economic activities including external factors. Various studies (Abdullah, Azad, & Siddiqua, 2018;Ahmad, 2018;Biplob, 2019;Hussain & Haque, 2017;Rana & Wahid, 2016) have been conducted on-budget deficit in Bangladesh. These studies were done with the budget deficit and economic growth in Bangladesh. Notably, none of these studies have focused on the sources of financing budget deficit in Bangladesh. There remains a huge gap in knowledge in these studies that this research seeks to accomplish. Therefore, this study, seeks to explore the current position of government budget deficit, its trends, and sources of budget deficit financing in Bangladesh during the periods between 1980 to 2018.
The remaining sections of this study are arranged as follows. Section 2 and 3 describes the objectives and methodology of the study respectively. In section 4 the results and discussion of this study are explained and section 5 describes the conclusion and policy implication of the results of this study.

Objectives of the Study
The main aim of this study is to examine the sources of budget deficit financing in the Bangladesh economy for the period between 1980-2018. The choice of this period is based on the availability of data. The particular objectives are as follows: i.
To analyse the present scenario of the budget deficit in Bangladesh. ii.
To investigate the various methods used by the Government of Bangladesh to finance the budget deficit.

Literature Review
Ahmed (2019) analysed the causes and cures of the budget deficit in Bangladesh established that the implementation of the budget generally relied upon the proper mobilization of domestic resources such as the tax revenue collection both from the sources of direct, and indirect taxes. But the tax revenue collection had not reached the expected level in Bangladesh. To decrease the budget deficit, the government should take efficient and appropriate measures of creating more domestic resources. Simultaneously to escape the shortage of the budget, the legislature should undertake steps to diminish public spending. Lamichhane (2018) examined the source of budget deficit financing in Finland. This study demonstrated that in financing the government budget deficit, the contribution of economic growth was significant. Raising employment, increasing investment and exports, expenditure on education, empowering, and making development indicates a positive driver in restoring economic growth. Moreover, the aggregated obligation will leave an enduring blemish on the economy as it occured in the Finnish economy. Therefore, the study asserted that economic growth is simply the best financing solution to the 'manageability hole'. Impacts of budget shortfall was found from the contextual analysis which were abundant, an ascent in joblessness, decline in standard of living, increment in charge, increment in private sparing, a decline in public sparing, increment of owing debtors, and an increase in the financing cost. Tung (2018) researched the impact of fiscal deficit on economic growth in Vietnam, by utilizing the Error Correction model. The experimental outcomes resulted in the cointegration nexus between fiscal deficit and economic growth in Vietnam. The study highlighted that fiscal deficit has a negative impact on economic growth both in the short and long-term. Sutihar (2014) investigated the pattern and sources of financing the budget deficit in Nepal. Shortfall financing was developed as a significant apparatus of financing government spending. Three exist three fons of deficit financing like an external loan, local borrowing, and money balance. The examination finds that the portion of financial deficiency/GDP proportion is varied from 2.9 percent to 5.5 percent between 2000/01 to 2010/11. The local borrowing to budget deficit is very large. The portion of the fiscal deficit to expenditure ratio changed from 15.9 percent to 30.3 percent in a similar period. The yearly declining pattern of financial shortage to use proportion showed that the Govt. of Nepal will have the option to plan and report the reasonable spending plan in the distant future.
Kosimbei (2009) examined the macroeconomic performance and budget deficits in Kenya: an experimental investigation. There existed two reasons for the budget deficit in Kenya, for example, structural factors and expanding government spending. The examination was to explore the techniques for financing budget deficits. The results of the investigation indicate that the government was not borrowing significantly from foreign sources. The government pursued resources from the local economy as of 1981 to 1992 by vending depository bills and bonds, encouraged by the presence of a genuine and exclusively created budgetary intermediation framework. In any case, there was a striking improvement in the charge income after 2003, prompted a decrease in momentary getting and presentation of long haul obtaining instruments. Residential acquiring prompts them to exit the private ventures. Likewise, the sources of spending shortages include the following: level of the monetary turn of events, development of incomes, insecurity of government incomes, government power over consumptions, and the degree of government cooperation in the economy. Haq (2001) examined the causes and effects of budget deficit financing in Pakistan set up that the extent of the deficit financing for improving economic growth in the reverse economy is exceptionally brilliant as they are trapped in an endless loop of underdevelopment. He noticed that such nations had used assets for speculation when the assets of the nation were not satisfactory to start the cycles of take-off, thus resulting in the requirement for deficient financing. Adesuyi and Falowo (2013) characterized deficiency financing as the net increment in the measure of cash available for use where such an expansion resulted from a cognizant governmental policy intended to empower monetary exercises which should not have occurred. Viably utilized, shortage financing could be an extremely amazing asset of capital arrangement to most creating nations. Jhingan (2002) likewise characterized deficiency financing along comparative lines; deficit financing alludes to the financing of the intentionally made hole between public income and spending, the technique for financing that outcomes in the net expansion to public cost or total spending. Generally the government funds its deficiencies in three primary manners, which are indicated by Emmanuel (2013) by incorporating printing of cash, financing debt, and drawing from the reserves of foreign exchange that was collected throughout the long term. Chhibber and Wijnbergen (1998) contended in their with the Turkish data that an enormous budget deficit was financed by obtaining domestically hindered private investment making to raise the real interest rate. Majumder (2007) led an examination to look at the crowdingout impact in Bangladesh. Yet, he found that Bangladesh encountered crowding in instead of crowding out due to the overabundance of liquidity regulating the banking system.
There are questionable thoughts on the connection between economic growth and budget deficit: the Keynesian analysts contended that there existed a positive connection between the two arrangements, the neo-classical analysts contend the inverse, while, the Ricardian identicalness speculation asserts that there was unbiased nexus between budget deficit and economic growth in a nation. A review of previous investigations found that budget deficits have an inverse effect on economic growth (Adeoye, 2006;Akinmulegun, 2014;Awe & Funlayo, 2014;Haider, Shaon, & Kabir, 2016;Keho, 2010;Oladipo & Akinbobola, 2011;Muzib, Liton, Sadekin, & Mahmud, 2014) while other studies showed that the financing of the deficit had the positive effect of economic growth (Adesuyi & Falowo, 2014;Antwi et al., 2013;Emmanuel, 2013;Hassan & Akter, 2014;Rana & Wahid, 2017;Mushtaq & Zaman, 2013;Tung, 2018). In this manner, although various studies have been conducted on-budget deficit in Bangladesh, however none of these studies have focused on the sources of budget deficit financing in Bangladesh. Therefore, the current study is very significant.

Research Methodology
This study is adopted as a descriptive method for science. The descriptive research style, according to Bryman (2003), is a scientific method involving observing and explaining a subject's behaviour, without influencing it in any way. Its purpose is to give a picture of a situation as it happens naturally (Burns & Grove, 2007). The descriptive analysis aids the study to take into account the important aspects of the phenomenon and gives clear information on every concerned variable. This analysis used data from the annual time series spanning the period from 1980 to 2018. The research is based on the secondary data from the Bangladesh Economic Review released by the Ministry of Finance and Benson and Clay (2002) expressed by the World Bank. The data is analyzed using descriptive methods. Graphical research is conducted with the data obtained to achieve the study's objectives.

Findings and Discussion
The size and the composition of public expenditure is an important factor as it affects the existence of budget deficit. Using the fiscal instrument of taxation, expenditure, and borrowing governments mobilize resources to the arrangement of publicly provided goods and services with a higher objective of attaining better economic growth, manipulate the economy, and the public expenditure is becoming a growing concern in almost all developing countries (Mulugeta, 2018). In this section, the study shows the trend of government revenue and expenditure and focuses on the structure and trend of a budget deficit. It also describes methods of financing budget deficits in Bangladesh.

Trend in Government Revenue in Bangladesh
Tax revenue is the principal source of government revenue. Public revenue essentially comprises of direct and indirect taxes and they represent in excess of 80 percent of the total government revenue. The remainder of the revenue income originates from various non-tax sources, for example, expenses, charges, tolls, and other relevant streams. The amount of revenue is one of the recognized criteria for judging the phase of the economic development of a nation.     Tax Revenues Non-tax Revenues Total Revenues government revenues was BDT 67.46 billion. The portion of revenue (both taxes and nontaxes revenue) raised from BDT 95.9 billion in 1991 to BDT 354 billion in 2004. Following the early 1990s performance in income earnings, the income mobilization process began to demonstrate indications of weariness. The introduction of VAT significantly influenced the rise in the early 1990s. VAT offered a greater source of income comparaed to the taxes it supplanted, especially with regard to the local creation tax collection. The plunge in the mid-1990s is predicated largely by the demolishing floods of 1998. Most recovery was executed in 2001, where BDT was reported at 243.4 billion for the collection of total income, which is 9.6 percent of GDP and raised to 10.87 percent in 2004. Such an accomplishment is conceivable gratitude to awesome achievement in meeting the NBR 's goal for revenue collection.
The average increasing rate of revenue between the years 2011 and 2016 is BDT 1197.37 billion as against that of BDT 458.1 billion for the years between 2005 and 2010. Total revenue receipts increased by 11.5 percent and stand at Tk. 2,594.54 billion in 2018 compared to Tk. 2,185 billion in 2017. It is pertinent to say that the vital reason behind such an increase of revenue is the result in the increase of tax income which is the major revenue for the state, financing public spending and different expenses, substantially communicating the basic endeavors of the community. The subsequent endeavors to widen the tax base and fortify assessment organization through computerization, charge instruction, and implementation estimates drove the expansion in incomes on benefits and VAT. However, in one area where the performance of the country has been disappointing is the revenue mobilization. Revenue effort (i.e. Revenue to GDP ratio; less than 12 % in 2018) has been one of the lowest in the World. This, though, is not a recent phenomenon. Historically, revenue mobilization has been poor in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, given the fast-expanding tax bases (especially the domestic tax bases for income tax and VAT due to sustained 13 % nominal GDP growth) as well as the revenue efforts of countries with comparable per capita income, setting a target of around 12 to 13 percent appears to be on the lower side. Bangladesh should have set revenue targets of a minimum of 15 to 17 percent of GDP.

Trend in Government Expenditure in Bangladesh
Government spending typically represents public expenditure on goods and services and is a significant feature of GDP. Government expenditure is applied to the current expenditure and investment by the central authority of a country to satisfy the different social and political needs. Government expenditure in modern government finance is regarded as a means of securing social ends rather than just being mere finance mechanisms, government expenditure is significant in a modern economy because it produces money directly and indirectly to socio-economic effect (Mankiw, 2000). Government spending in Bangladesh has been tending to rise from its start. The increase in government spending is far greater than the national income.

Present Scenario of Budget Deficit in Bangladesh
The government of Bangladesh has been experiencing a consistent and increasing budget deficit but the question of whether it contributes to good or poor economic performance is what the study intends to investigate. To decrease the deficit, the government needs to extend its efforts in mobilizing income whereas keeping up it's spending beneath watch at the same time (Muriithi & Moyi, 2003). This is on the grounds that development in 7 government finance is regarded as a means of securing social ends rather than just being mere finance mechanisms, government expenditure is significant in a modern economy because it produces money directly and indirectly to socio-economic effect (Mankiw, 2000). Government spending in Bangladesh has been tending to rise from its start. The increase in government spending is far greater than the national income.  Since independence, Bangladesh has been experiencing a consistent and increasing budget deficit. During the 1980s, Bangladesh has confronted an intense emergency of uneven characters asset. In a nascent economy, there are enormous weights on public spending comparative with the inconsequential income base, which causes inappropriate budget deficit. The enormous number of misfortune-making state ventures within the generally nationalized economy contributed to the asset trouble, and the nation's improvement spending is massively complete through benefactor assets. Monetization of government shortages and unfriendly developments as far as the exchange, particularly in the consequence of the subsequent oil-value stun, added to a sharp decay in lopsided macroeconomic characteristics. These prompted an important budget deficit to remain at BDT 65.2 billion (11.7 % of GDP) during the 1980s.
Source: Bangladesh Economic Review (2005,2018). In early period of 1990s, a higher level of the budget deficit is performed but the portion has diminished toward the end of the period from 6.5 percent in 1991 to 4.6 percent in 1995. In the first half of the 1990s, the average budget deficit is BDT 69.52 billion (5.5 % of GDP) but after that, it accelerated to BDT 91.54 billion (4.5 % of GDP) in the second half of the decade. The budget deficit suddenly expanded in 1999 followed by a staggering flood in 1998. However, in the presence of the increasing demand for expenditures and lower than forecast revenue collection, was largely due to the flood-related expenditures. The overall budget stands at BDT 80.53 billion at the end of the 1990s. However, within the sight of expanding demand for spending and lower than gauge income assortment, generally on the

Present Scenario of Budget Deficit in Bangladesh
The government of Bangladesh has been experiencing a consistent and increasing budget deficit but the question of whether it contributes to good or poor economic performance is what the study intends to investigate. To decrease the deficit, the government needs to extend its efforts in mobilizing income whereas keeping up it's spending beneath watch at the same time (Muriithi & Moyi, 2003). This is on the grounds that development in government spending raises the budget deficit if income is not developing at a similar proportion and it is declined if the expansion in income is depleted in poor and inefficient social projects. In Bangladesh, the trends of the budget deficit between the period 1980 and 2018 are highlighted in Figure 3.
Since independence, Bangladesh has been experiencing a consistent and increasing budget deficit. During the 1980s, Bangladesh has confronted an intense emergency of uneven characters asset. In a nascent economy, there are enormous weights on public spending comparative with the inconsequential income base, which causes inappropriate budget deficit. The enormous number of misfortune-making state ventures within the generally nationalized economy contributed to the asset trouble, and the nation's improvement spending is massively complete through benefactor assets. Monetization of government shortages and unfriendly developments as far as the exchange, particularly in the consequence of the subsequent oil-value stun, added to a sharp decay in lopsided macroeconomic characteristics. These prompted an important budget deficit to remain at BDT 65.2 billion (11.7 % of GDP) during the 1980s.  However, the government utilizes this money directly or indirectly for the welfare of the public and for the improvement of the economy. Therefore, Bangladesh has adopted an expansionary economic policy as it directs ample capital to suitable directions that lead to poverty and sustain economic growth in the nation.

Methods of Financing of Budget Deficits in Bangladesh
The financing of the budget deficit is essential for a country's fiscal and monetary authorities, as it is very effective in allocating resources between the private and public sectors. A lack of a suitable funding mix for deficits may also distort an economy's monetary transmission process Besides, high government debt accumulated from a high budget deficit will threaten debt sustainability and bring sluggish economic activity. With regard to deficit financing, the government in Bangladesh mainly accumulates loans from domestic and external sources. Over the past seven or eight years, Bangladesh has funded much of its fiscal deficit by borrowing domestically before the deficit financing depended heavily on foreign borrowings. Bangladesh banks, scheduled banks, and other non-bank financial organizations which are the principal sources of domestic borrowing. External funding sources are multilateral loaning foundations, for example, the IMF, World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank, other streams and various countries. The borrowings from the banking sector increasingly emerged because of the key source of deficit financing in Bangladesh. The following is an explanation of each of the methods of deficit financing.

Domestic Financing
Domestic resources are often regarded as the Goverment's primary source to finance deficits. The Government borrows from two domestic sources: the banking industry, and the non-banking market. In recent times, the Bangladesh government finances most of its budget deficit from the domestic sources, especially from the banks. However, the actual scenario is different as the government raises money from selling savings certificates above the budgeted figure, which ultimately reduces the burden for the government to borrow from banks. The Govt is domestically borrowing higher. The NSD certificates reflect sluggish demand for private sector investment funds. A large amount of bank borrowing by the government will deflect the income in the private segment, thus, allowing the government to obtain the reserves from different sources, such as infrastructure funds and bonds, and other money-related instruments. 139

Analysis of Trend and Sources of Government Budget Deficit Financing in Bangladesh
Source: Bangladesh Economic Review (2005,2018). Among domestic sources, the amount of borrowing from bank sources is higher than that from the non-bank sources in 2008-2016. The borrowing from bank sources is BDT 109.6 billion in 2008 while it stands at BDT 31.4 billion from non-bank sources at that period.
On the other hand, in 2016 borrowing from bank sources stand at BDT 316.7 billion while it stands at BDT 305 billion from non-bank sources. In recent times, borrowing from the banking sector is decreasing.
The structure of deficit financing in recent years has been characterized by low net admission from external funding sources as compared to substantial dependence on internal sources. Inside the domestic funding structure, excessively selling of high yielding NSD is again the major contributor in 2018. Since the selling of NSD certificates has already secured a large share of the funding, the need for bank borrowing may be very small. Government net borrowing from the banking system decreases BDT 239.03 billion in 2017 and BDT 199.17 billion during 2018 while net govt. borrowing from the non-banking sources (including Treasury Bills and Bonds and savings instruments) increased BDT 460 billion in 2017 and Tk. 461 billion in 2018. Among the domestic sources, borrowing from non-bank sources 10 will deflect the income in the private segment, thus, allowing the government to obtain the reserves from different sources, such as infrastructure funds and bonds, and other money-related instruments. Source: Bangladesh Economic Review (2005. The structure of deficit financing in recent years has been characterized by low net admission from external funding sources as compared to substantial dependence on internal sources. Inside the domestic funding structure, excessively selling of high yielding NSD is again the major contributor in 2018. Since the selling of NSD certificates has already secured a large share of the funding, the need for bank borrowing may be very small. Government net borrowing from Govt. borrowing from non-banking sources Net domestic financing Govt. borrowing from banking system has been on the rise mainly due to the increase in a net sale of national savings certificates (NSD) while borrowing from bank sources is on the decline.

Foreign Financing
External support has played an important role within the economic improvement of Bangladesh helping in connecting the interior gap (savings-investment gap) and the external gap (export-import gap) (Sadekin, Muzib, & Al Abbasi, 2015). In recent years, the trend of budget deficit shows a steady decline of dependence on external assistance. But the principal and interest repayment for received loans by Bangladesh is gradually increasing. As a result, the pace of increment of the net flow of external resources becomes slow, and sometimes this flow also reduces. There is an increase in the outflow of budgetary resources that lessens the net progression of foreign funding resources to Bangladesh. The budget deficits are heavily financed by external resources in the early 1980s and 1990s, in the form of Official Development Assistance ( ODA). Therefore, 86 percent of the ADP was funded by the ODA in 1991, and 4.81 percent of GDP is the net foreign financing of the budget deficit.
Source: Bangladesh Economic Review (2005,2018). During the 1990s, the amount of external funding diminished to 3.21 percent at the end of the primary half. The cumulative share of the budget deficit is primarily funded from domestic sources, and net international funding dropped sequentially in the early 2000s. The external resource has got a significant increasing trend between 2012 and 2018. Analyzing the data from outer sources indicates that in 2018, the number of foreign resources stands at BDT 415.67 billion which is 72.64 percent higher than the receipt BDT 240.77 billion of the

Foreign Financing
External support has played an important role within the economic improvement of Bangladesh helping in connecting the interior gap (savings-investment gap) and the external gap (export-import gap) (Sadekin, Muzib, & Al Abbasi, 2015). In recent years, the trend of budget deficit shows a steady decline of dependence on external assistance. But the principal and interest repayment for received loans by Bangladesh is gradually increasing. As a result, the pace of increment of the net flow of external resources becomes slow, and sometimes this flow also reduces. There is an increase in the outflow of budgetary resources that lessens the net progression of foreign funding resources to Bangladesh. The budget deficits are heavily financed by external resources in the early 1980s and 1990s, in the form of Official Development Assistance ( ODA). Therefore, 86 percent of the ADP was funded by the ODA in 1991, and 4.81 percent of GDP is the net foreign financing of the budget deficit.  During the 1990s, the amount of external funding diminished to 3.21 percent at the end of the primary half. The cumulative share of the budget deficit is primarily funded from domestic sources, and net international funding dropped sequentially in the early 2000s.

Conclusion
The descriptive analysis has expressed that the general trend for government expenditure has been persistently increasing in Bangladesh throughout the study period due to the expansion of the public sector economy. In a similar pattern, the government revenue has also increased during duration of the research, but it fails to catch up with the growth of government expenditure that deficit starts since independence and has been growing ever seen. In turn, this has created a budget deficit as it is not followed by equally proportionate growth revenue. Since 1984, the large and rapid expansion of state activity within the economy has led to the growth of both government revenue and spending with the dominance of the latter. As a result, the budget deficit is growing over time. It has been argued that the causes of the rising budget deficit is mainly caused by the growth of expenditure over revenue. Apart from this, there are four reasons as to why the government may open to high budget deficit level, political reasons, that governments may deliberately favor high spending levels and low tax rates to make their government legitimate; structural reasons; which makes the economy inflexible within the short term; inflation, that reduces the real balance of tax revenue as a result of the existence of collection lags and finally theorizing development.
The descriptive analysis for financing the deficit shows that the way of finance is shifted from foreign sources to the domestic resources. In recent times, among the domestic sources, borrowing from non-bank sources has been on the rise mainly due to the increase in the net sale of national savings certificates (NSD) while borrowing from bank sources is on the decline. Budget implementation largely depends on the appropriate mobilization of internal resources i.e., collection of tax revenue from both direct and indirect tax sources. Collecting taxes is a mountainous job. While developed countries have been able to collect taxes to the required level in most of the cases, developing countries like Bangladesh struggle to collect the same. However, the tax GDP ratio is still low relative to other neighboring nations. The size of the budget is being increased every year and more money is to be invested into the exchequer through the collection of taxes. On the contrary, the collection of revenue has yet to reach the expected level. There are various multiple causes which are ranging from weak tax administration, corruption, narrow tax base, tax avoidance by MNCs, lack of tax culture, and a variety of others.
Under the circumstances, it is imperative that to increase tax revenue and reduces the budget deficit, the government should be made the fundamental reform of tax structures and the reform should focus on broadening the tax bases (as opposed to mounting high tax rates), minimize tax exemption and improve the tax administration system which affects the tax-collecting systems and reduce unnecessary and unrealistic public expenditure. The government should implement the appropriate steps to ensure more investment resources or to set up a fund to finance non-development expenditure to reduce debt dependency, ensuring more allocation to the development sector as to reduce debt dependency. Otherwise, the continuing budget deficit will reign the economy of Bangladesh for the future and put the economy at stake.