FY2020-21 Budget Passed in JS

On Tuesday, with the slogan 'Economic Transition and Pathway to Progress', the parliament passed the Tk 568,000 crore national budget for 2020-21 fiscal.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal moved the Appropriations Bill, 2020 seeking a budgetary allocation of Tk 7,59,642.44 crore which was passed by voice vote.

Following a proposal presented in the House by the Ministry of Finance for the Parliamentary approval of appropriations to fulfill the necessary development and non-development expenditure of the Country, the Ministers concerned received justifications for the spending by their respective ministries via 59 grant demands.

Earlier, Parliament rejected by voice vote a total of only 421 cut-motions that stood in the name of opposition members on 59 demands for grants for different ministries.

A total of nine MPs of the Jatiya Party and BNP submitted their expenditure reductions. They are Kazi Firoze Rashid, Mujibul Huq, Fakhrul Imam, Pir Fazlur Rahman, Shamim Haider Patwari, Liaquat Hossain Khoka, Begum Rawshan Ara Mannan, Harun Ur Rashid, and Rumeen Farhan.

They were, however, allowed to participate in the discussion on Law Ministry and Health Ministry.

Earlier, Speaker Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury used guillotine to speed up the cycle of applying for grants to various ministries without offering lunch.

Opposition and opposition Representatives were present at the House when the Appropriation Act was enacted in Parliament and did not lift a hand against the passage of the bill.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on June 11 placed a Tk 568,000 crore to attain an ambitious 8.2 percent GDP, which has been revised to 5.2 percent in line with maintaining a 5.4 percent inflation for the next fiscal overcoming all the challenges and impacts of the Covid-19 global pandemic.

The total allocation for operational and other spending is projected at Tk 3.62.855 crore, while the allocation for the annual development program (ADP) is Tk 2.05.145 crore.

The overall expenditure size for the current fiscal year was previously calculated at Tk. 5,23,190 crore, guy. The deficit was reduced by Tk in the updated bill. 21,613 crore, and therefore updated by Tk. 5,01,577 crores.

Keeping in mind the reality and proposed reforms in revenue management, the government set the goal in overall tax revenue for the fiscal year 2020-21 at Tk. It's 3.78,000 crore.

Okay, out of this, Tk. 3.30,000 crores will be raised from the NBR. Tax revenues from non-NBR sources have been estimated at Tk. 15,000 crores, while Tk's non-tax revenue. 33,000 crore, he continued.

The overall budget deficit has been estimated at Tk. 190,000 crore, which is 6 percent of GDP, up from 5.0 percent in the last fiscal year. Out of the total deficit, Tk 80,017 crore will be financed from external sources, while Tk 1,09,983 crore from domestic sources of which Tk 84,983 crore will come from the banking system and Tk 25,000 crore from savings certificates and other non-bank sources.

For the social infrastructure sector in the proposed budget is Tk. 1,55,536 crore, which is 27.38 per cent of total allocation, in which allocation for human resource sector (education, health and other related sectors) will be Tk. 1,40,222 crore.

Besides, the allocation proposed for the physical infrastructure sector will be Tk 1,67,011 crore or 29.40 per cent, in which Tk 69,553 crore will go to overall agricultural and rural development, Tk 61,435 crore to overall communications, and Tk 26,758 crore to power and energy. A total of Tk 1,40,265 crore has been proposed for general services, which is 24.69 per cent of the total allocation.

A total of Tk 36,610 has been allocated to public-private partnership (PPP), financial support to various sectors, incentives and equity contributions in nationalized corporations, banks and financial institutions, which is 6.45% of the total allocation.

As per the ministry and division-wise allocation, the Local Government Division received a proposed budgetary allocation of Tk 36,103 crore, followed by Tk 22,883 crore to the Health Services Division alongside Tk 6,362 crore to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Tk 29,442 crore to the Road Transport and Highways Division, Tk 24,853 crore to the Power Division, Tk 15,442 crore to the Ministry of Agriculture, Tk 33,118 crore to Secondary and Higher Education Division, Tk 24,937 crore to the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Tk 34,842 crore to the Ministry of Defense.

To fulfill emergency requirements, a, Tk 10,000 crore lump sum amount has been allotted to fight Covid-19.

The Government has allocated Tk 95,574 crore to social security net services, which is 16.83 per cent of the total budget and 3.01 per cent of GDP for the 2020-21 fiscal year. The allocation for the last year's revised budget was Tk. It's 81,865 crore.

Earlier on Monday, Parliament passed the Finance Bill 2020 with some changes.

Source: UNB