Dhaka – With its focus on human resource development, employment, power and energy sector, the government is likely to come up with around Tk 3,40,006 crore budget for the next fiscal year (2016-17), unb news agency has reported.
To be placed by Finance Minister AMA Muhith in parliament on June 2, the new national budget also targets a 7.2 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.
This was finalised at a high-level budget preparatory meeting of the fiscal coordination council and resource committee of the government held at the Finance Division on April 10 with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair. The meeting also set the target to keep the inflation at 5.8 percent in the new fiscal year.Officials present at the meetings said both the GDP growth and inflation targets in the current and upcoming fiscal years will be achieved because of low prices of oil and other commodities.
An official close to the meeting said the overall revenue collection target for the next fiscal year is likely to be around Tk 2,42,752 crore for which the budget deficit will stand at Tk 97,254 crore which would be within five percent of the GDP.
The budget preparatory meetings also gave nod to the revised budget for the current fiscal year that that stands at around Tk 2,63,565 crore with a Tk 31,565 crore reduction from the original budget earlier announced in June 2015.
The next national budget will give priory to mainly six sectors — human resource development, skill development, employment generation, power, energy and ICT sector.
Although there is no estimation yet on energy subsidy in the next budget, there is a possible allocation of around Tk 12,500 crore as stimulus.
Besides, the Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative is likely to see a Tk 3,000 crore allocation in the new budget.
According to the sources, the GDP growth target in the next fiscal year will be 7.2 percent inspired by the provisional estimation of 7.05 percent GDP growth rate in the current fiscal year. Besides, the size of the next budget will be within 17.3 percent of the GDP which is around Tk 3,40,006 crore.
Meanwhile, the revised budget for the current fiscal stood at 15.3 percent of the GDP which is around Tk 2,63,565 crore.
In the next budget, the share of revenue expenditure is likely to be around Tk 2,19,742 crore alongside the development expenditure of Tk 1,20,264 crore. Of the development expenditure, the size of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) is likely to be around Tk 1,10,264 crore.
The officials said the meetings cited slow implementation of development projects, low investment and sluggish growth of revenue as the three major challenges the government faces in steering the economy to a higher growth path.
As per the provisional data of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, GDP will grow at 7.05 percent in the current fiscal year against the government’s target of 7 percent, amid the rise in salaries for about 14 lakh government employees.
