Last budget session of 10th parliament begins

FT ONLINE

The last budget session of the 10th parliament began on Tuesday.

Finance Minister AM Muhith is going to place a Tk 468,200-crore budget at 12:30pm on Thursday for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

This will be the fifth budget session of the current parliament, which began at 11:15am with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

It is the last national budget of the current government as the next parliamentary elections will be held in December next.

President Abdul Hamid on May 16 last summoned the Jatiya Sangsad session exercising the power bestowed upon him as per Article 72 (1) of the constitution.

Muhith is going to set a rare example by placing the 10th consecutive budget of the current government. However, this will be his 12th budget so far as he placed two more budgets during the regime of HM Ershad in the 1980s.

The allocation for the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the coming fiscal year is likely to be Tk 178,296 crore, up from the outgoing fiscal year, sources at the Finance Ministry.

Besides, the government may set the GDP growth target for the upcoming fiscal year at 7.8 percent.

The revenue collection target for the next fiscal year is likely to be fixed at Tk 340,775 crore, up 18 percent from that of the current fiscal year. The revenue collection target for fiscal 2017-18 is Tk 287,990 crore.

The Finance Minister earlier at pre-budget discussions indicated that corporate tax rate will also be reduced as the young generation is showing a growing interest in paying income tax.