UNB, Dhaka: The government on Thursday unveiled a Tk 603,681 crore-national budget for 2021-22 fiscal to get the economy going in spite of the crippling Covid-19 pandemic with a strong focus on vaccinating the population and shoring up their jobs.
A bold target has been set to achieve 7.2 per cent of GDP growth as Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presented the budget proposals in Parliament, with deficit totalling Tk. 214,618 crore, which is 6.2 per cent of GDP.
To meet the deficit, Tk 101,228 crore will come from external sources, while Tk 113,453 crore from domestic sources of which Tk 76,452 crore will come from the banking system and Tk 37,001 crore from savings certificates and other non-bank sources.
The size of the budget themed “Bangladesh towards a resilient future protecting lives and livelihoods’ is 17.5 percent of the GDP.
He said that the growth rate for 2021-2022 has been fixed at 7.2 percent remaining consistent with the government’s long-term plan and taking the post-Covid recovery situation into account. “It is expected that the inflation rate will be 5.3 per cent during the period.”
Total allocation for operating and other expenditures has been set at Tk 378,357 crore, while the allocation for the annual development program is Tk 225,324 crore.
“In the national budget, we usually formulate development plans in a coordinated manner by combining short, medium and long term action plans. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we do not have all kinds of data in front of us for this year,” he said.
He also mentioned that Bangladesh, under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is moving ahead on the path of faster economic transition than other nations by overcoming the initial impact of COVID-19.
“But already a second wave and even a third wave have begun around the world, the impact of which is quite pronounced everywhere,” he said.
Therefore, he mentioned that in the budget for the next fiscal year, in tandem with development, the lives and livelihood of the marginalised people of the country are receiving priority.
He said that Bangladesh has reached a new height after its transition to a developing economy.
The Finance Minister said that Bangladesh’s sustained achievement of high GDP growth in the last decade has been halted temporarily due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The total revenue income in the fiscal year 2021-2022 has been fixed at Tk 389,000 crore, which is 11.3 percent of GDP. Out of this, Tk 330,000 crore will be collected through the NBR sources. Tax revenue from non-NBR sources has been estimated at Tk 16,000 crore, while the non-tax revenue is estimated to be Tk 43,000 crore.
Health, agriculture and employment generation have been given priority while allocating resources for the ADP.
