Tk 2,22,491 crore budget eying 7.2pc growth unveiled

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith today rolled out a Tk 2,22,491 crore national budget for the fiscal 2013-14 attaching priority to luring investments for higher growth.

Budget 2013-14

The size of the budget for the fiscal year 2013-14 is Tk 33,165 core or 17.52 percent higher than the current fiscal’s revised budget of Tk 189,326 crore.
The real economic growth target has been fixed at 7.2 percent for the new financial year. The finance minister hoped that overall inflation will be reduced to 7.0 percent in the financial year 2013-14 and to 5.5 percent in the medium term.
This is the last budget of the present Awami League-led grand alliance government who came to power in January 2009. The alliance would not get the full year of 2013-14 to implement this budget.
“From the very beginning, our aim was to transform Bangladesh into a middle income country . . . every budget we announced was a tool for realizing this goal and I am pleased to let you know that we have attained outstanding success in achieving the targets as set out in the budgets,” said the finance minister in his speech.
“All major economic indicators during our tenure show positive developments in the economy,” he added.
President Abdul Hamid authenticated the proposed national budget for 2013-14 and the revised budget of 2012-13 prior to placing them before the Jatiya Sangsad by the Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith.
Earlier in the day, the cabinet in a meeting at Sangsad Bhavan with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair approved the budget.
In the budget for the year 2013-14, the allocation for non- development and other expenditures has been estimated at Tk. 1,56,621 crore. Expenditure for ADP has been estimated at Tk. 65,870 crore.
The revenue income for FY 2013-14 has been estimated at Tk. 1,67,459 crore which is 14.1 percent of GDP, in which NBR tax revenue is Tk. 1,36,090 crore. Revenue from Non-NBR sources has been estimated at Tk. 5,129 crore.
In addition, Tk. 26,240 crore will be collected as Non Tax Revenue (NTR).
For achieving the revenue earning target, the finance minister expressed his determination to carry out reforms in revenue department and said the government has taken initiatives to effect planned reforms in this sector as a vital part of its strategy of overall economic policy.
The overall budget deficit will be Tk. 55,032 crore and of this amount, Tk. 21,068 crore will be financed from external sources and Tk. 33,964 crore will be mobilized from domestic sources. Of the domestic financing, Tk. 25,993 crore will come from the banking system.
In the budget speech Muhith said the space created by fiscal and monetary sectors will have a conducive impact on investment environment and facilitate 7.2 percent growth in FY 2013-14, raising it to 8 percent in FY 2014-15.
“Our aim is to channelize additional resources to vital growth-supportive projects. In case of investment expenditure, we are focusing on implementing quality projects,” said the finance minister.
About the resource allocation, he said the finance ministry has classified different ministries/divisions into three groups based on their functions – social infrastructure, physical infrastructure and general service sectors.
In the proposed budget, 23.17 percent has been allocated to social infrastructure sector, of which 19.6 percent has been proposed for human resource (education, health, and other related sectors), 30.18 percent of total allocation has been proposed for physical infrastructure sector, of which 14.50 percent has been proposed for overall ADP implementation, he added.
“We are widening fiscal space by scaling up the revenue collection programme through comprehensive reform initiatives and ensuring public expenditure control,” he added.
Muhith said Bangladesh now has a strong economic footing as poverty of the country has declined fast and income inequality also reduced during the tenure of the present government.
Illiteracy has reduced and standard of education has improved, he said, adding that public health is showing improvement.
He said remarkable progress has been made in the provision of power for promotion of business, commerce and industry and in building infrastructure and visible development has been made in taking forward the task of establishing Digital Bangladesh driven by improved technology.
“The recognition of our success has now spread far and wide,” (Source: BSS)

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