Muhith placing Tk 4.64 trillion-budget

FT ONLINE

Finance Minister AMA Muhith is placing the last budget of this government for the fiscal year 2018-19.

He started placing the Tk 4.64 trillion-plus budget before the parliament at 12:30 in the afternoon.

The lofty budget set a target of Tk 3.39 trillion revenue earnings, of which Tk 2.96 trillion will be collected by the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

To meet the deficit of Tk 1.21 trillion, the finance minister wants to borrow Tk 420.29 billion from the banking system and Tk 291.97 billion from non-bank sources. The remaining gap will be financed by foreign credit worth Tk 500 billion.

The outlay of development expenditure is Tk 1.79 trillion.

Earlier, the budget was cleared by the cabinet at a special meeting at the Parliament Complex, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

This year’s budget is the highest in monetary terms in the country’s history. The last budget was a Tk 4.0 trillion-plus size.

Also, the budget is equivalent to 18 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) or Tk US$ 220 billion.

With the next election only months away, there may be some considerations in the budget with an aim to please people from all segments of society.

The first half of this budget will be executed by this government while the rest will be done by the government, to be elected after the next election.

This budget will be the country's 47th while it, the 12th by Mr Muhith. It will also draw him level with late finance Minister Saifur Rahman who also had 12 budgets to his credit.

Muhith, now at 85, will be the first finance minister to place the national budget for the 10th time in a row since 2009.

Like the previous year, the budget this year is being presented on PowerPoint and all the fiscal documents will be available on the website of the finance division - www.mof.gov.bd.

The budget documents will also be available on www.bangladesh.gov.bd, www.nbr-bd.org, www.plancomm.gov.bd, www.imed.gov.bd, www.bdpressinform.org, www.pmo.gov.bd.

Any person or organisation from home and abroad can given their feedback, opinions or recommendations by filling up a form after downloading it from the website.

The opinions and recommendations the government receives will be considered.

Muhith is scheduled to speak at a post-budget press conference at Osmani Memorial Auditorium on Friday at 2:30 in the afternoon.