Subsidies in agriculture will remain static in the new fiscal as Finance Minister AMA Muhith in his budget speech on Thursday proposed continuing with the same amount of subsidy for fertilizer, seeds, irrigation and other agricultural inputs compared to that of the previous fiscal.
However, the subsidy has declined in real sense if it is considered that a slight increase of Tk 34,284 crore in the total budget size has been proposed, not to mention that more than seven percent inflation took over the fiscal, and that fuel prices increased several times.
The proposed agriculture subsidy is about 3.59 percent of the total budget, whereas in the revised budget for the fiscal 2013-14, the agriculture subsidy stood for 4.16 percent. In the fiscal 2012-13, the percentage of agriculture subsidy was 6.14 percent.
For the overall agriculture sector, the Finance Minister has proposed an allocation of Tk 12,390 crore and Tk 1,344 crore for Fisheries and Livestock Ministry respective.
The proposed allocation for Agriculture Ministry and Fisheries and Livestock Ministry combined is only Tk 389 crore higher compared to the revised budget for the fiscal 2013-2014.
In the budget, an amount of Tk 1,524 crore has been proposed as ADP allocation for Agriculture Ministry.
The ADP allocation for Agriculture Ministry in the proposed budget stands for 1.9 percent of the total proposed budget, whereas the ADP allocation for the ministry in the revised budget for the fiscal 2013-14 stood for 2.2 percent.
Source: UNB Connect
