The Jatiya Sangsad today passed a Taka 6,03,681 crore national budget for fiscal year (2021-2022) that aims to attain a 7.2 percent GDP growth target putting priority to the lives and livelihood of the country’s people in tandem with development amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The national budget for the next fiscal year titled “Bangladesh towards a resilient future protecting lives and livelihoods” was passed Wednesday, which was also the last day of the outgoing fiscal year (FY21).
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal moved the Appropriation Bill, 2021 seeking a budgetary allocation of Taka 792,912.95 crore which was passed by voice vote.
Earlier on Yesterday, the Jatiya Sangsad passed the Finance Bill, 2021 with some changes.
Following the proposal mooted in the House by the Finance Ministry for the parliamentary approval of appropriation of fund for meeting necessary development and non-development expenditures of the government, the ministers concerned placed justifications for the expenditures by their respective ministries through 59 demands for grant.
Earlier, the Parliament rejected by voice vote a total of only 625 cut-motions that stood in the name of opposition members on 59 demands for grants for different ministries.
A total of twelve MPs from Jatiya Party and BNP submitted their cut-motions on the budget.
They are Kazi Firoze Rashid, Rustam Ali Farazi, Mujibul Huq, Fakhrul Imam, Pir Fazlur Rahman, Shamim Haider Patwari, Begum Rawshan Ara Mannan, Harun Ur Rashid, Mosharrof Hossain, Liaquat Hossain Khoka, Mokabbir Kan, and Rumeen Farhana.
They were, however, allowed to participate in the discussion on Law Ministry, Secondary and Higher Education Division and and Health Services Division.
Later, Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury applied guillotine to quicken the process of passing the demands for grants for different ministries without giving the lunch break.
Opposition and independent MPs were present at the House when the Appropriations Bill was passed in Parliament and they did not raise any voice against passing of the bill.
Earlier on June 3, Kamal while placing his 192-page budget speech, under the title “Bangladesh Towards a Resilient Future Protecting Lives And Livelihoods” highlighted various steps of the government to mitigate the shocks from the COVID-19 and the way forward to a sustainable economic recovery.
The total budget size of Taka 6,03,681 crore for FY22 is 17.5 percent of GDP. Total allocation for operating and other expenditures has been set at Taka 3,78,357 crore, while the allocation for the ADP is Taka 2,25,324 crore.
The overall budget deficit for FY 22 will be Taka 2,14,681 crore, which is 6.2 percent of GDP while the budget deficit in the last fiscal year was 6.1 percent.
Out of the total deficit, Taka 1,01,228 crore will be financed from external sources, while Taka 1,13,453 crore from domestic sources of which Taka 76,452 crore will come from the banking system and Taka 37,001 crore from savings certificates and other non-bank sources.
The growth rate for FY22 has been fixed at 7.2 percent remaining consistent with the government’s long-term plan and taking the post COVID-19 recovery situation into account. The inflation rate during this period is expected to remain within 5.3 percent.
With having utmost priority to the programmes and steps taken by the government to address the COVID-19 pandemic, the government also allocated Taka 32,731 crore for the Health and Family Welfare sector in the next fiscal year, which was Tk. 29,245 crore in FY21.
The government has set the target for total revenue income in the FY22 at Taka 3,89,000 crore, which is 11.3 percent of GDP. Out of this, Taka 3,30,000 crore will be collected through the NBR sources. Tax revenue from non-NBR sources has been estimated at Taka 16,000 crore, while the non-tax revenue is estimated to be Taka 43,000 crore.
The Allocation for the social infrastructure sector in the budget is Taka 1,70,510 crore, which is 28.25 percent of total allocation, in which allocation for human resources sector (education, health and other related sectors) will be Taka 1,55,847 crore.
Allocation for the physical infrastructure sector is Taka 1,79,681 crore or 29.76 percent, in which Taka 74,102 crore will go to overall agriculture and rural development, Taka 69,474 crore to overall communications, and Taka 27,484 crore to power and energy.
A total of Taka 1,45,150 crore has been allocated for general services, which is 24.04 percent of the total allocation. Taka 34,648 crore is allocated for public-private partnerships (PPP), financial assistance to different industries, subsidies, equity investments in state-owned, commercial and financial institutions, which is 5.74 percent of the total allocation.
Besides, there are allocations of Taka 68,589 crore for interest payment, which is 11.36 percent of the total allocation, Taka 5,103 crore for net lending and other expenses, which is 0.85 percent of the total allocation.
Considering the impact of the pandemic, the government has made allocation of Taka 1,07,614 crore in the social safety net sector, which is 17.83 percent of the budget and 3.11 percent of the GDP.
