Finance Minsiter Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has begun presenting his 11th budget projecting a total government expenditure of over Tk 4 trillion.
This will be the last effective budget for this term of the Awami League government.
This will be the biggest budget in the history of Bangladesh, around 26 percent bigger than the previous.
The projected GDP growth is 7.4%, this year it will be around 7.24% against a projection of 7.2%.
The heavily VAT-reliant budget says that 37% revenue will come from VAT and 36% from direct income tax.
The budget of the last fiscal year was around 3.4 trillion of which the government managed to implement around 3.2 trillion.
This will be the country’s 46th budget and the 18th of the Awami League government while the 11th for Muhith.
Muhith will be the first finance minister to place national budget for the ninth time in a row since 2009.
This time around, the key factor would be the financing of this budget with the remittance inflow – a major revenue source of Bangladesh – sliding throughout the past year.
The decline in remittance flow from the six Gulf Cooperation countries, the largest labour market for Bangladesh, mainly accounts for the slump.
A full house is likely to be present, along with leader of the parliament and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, when Muhith starts to place the national budget.
The next fiscal policy and outlay is expected to draw government’s ultimate endeavor to fulfill people’s dreams.
This is Muhith’s 11th time presenting the budget. The budget, however, will be the country’s 46th budget and the 18th of the Awami League government.
Muhith will be the first finance minister who is placing the national budget for the ninth time in a row since 2009.
Muhith is expected to showcase how much the government had done for the people and the country in the past few years and what else it would have in its development agenda for the coming days.
Muhith had already announced that the coming budget would be the “best budget” of his life, hinting that the budget size is likely to be over Taka 4 trillion. He also hinted at increasing the revenue growth target to 30 percent in the new budget.
The issues including growth, investment, poverty, food security and infrastructure, would be likely to get priority in the next fiscal policy and allocation.
The budget would also have some other special features those are designed in line with the government’s target of promoting the country to middle-income group by 2021.
There will also be a set of proposals for reforming the country’s revenue authorities by introducing new VAT (value added tax) law so the government could mobilise more internal resources and keep the budget deficit within 5.0 percent.
The budget this year too will be presented on PowerPoint and will be made available on the website of the finance division –here.
The budget documents will also be available on http://www.bangladesh.gov.bd, http://www.nbr-bd.org, http://www.plancomm.gov.bd, http://www.imed.gov.bd, http://www.bdpressinform.org and http://www.pmo.gov.bd.
The finance minister will address a post budget press conference at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium on June 2 at 3 pm on Friday.
Source: The Daily Ittefaq
