It has been planned by the government to borrow Tk 73,828 crore from banking and the non-banking sectors in the new fiscal year (2017-18).
Tk 48,000 of the total amount will be come from the banking sector while Tk 25,828 crore from the non-banking sector.
The government is going for the increased borrowing as it does not want to put extra tax burden on the mass population ahead of the next general election to be held in 2019, a Finance Ministry official told UNB.
This budget will be the last budget for the Awami-League-led grand alliance government as the 2018-‘19 budget will be a partial one. “So, the government wants to make the mass people happy in various ways though the upcoming budget,” the official said.
The government also set a target to achieve foreign aid of Tk 55,800 crore while Tk 56,00 crore as grant.
The foreign aid target for the current fiscal was set at Tk 38,938 crore, but it was increased by Tk 2,000 crore in the revised budget.
The goal of loan amount was Tk 38,523 crore from the banking sector in the 2015-16 fiscal while the amount was Tk 31,221 crore in 2014-15 fiscal.
According to sources at the Finance Ministry, the government is estimating the GDP growth for the 2017-18 fiscal at 7.4 percent.
They said an added amount of Tk 6,820 crore will be needed for the salaries and allowances of the public servants. The estimated expenditure for this sector has been set at Tk 57,420 crore.
Besides, the objective to subsidy expenditure has been set at Tk 27,500 crore which is 1.2 percent of the GDP for the upcoming budget of 2017-18 fiscal.
Source: The Daily Ittefaq