Mega budget planned for economic recovery

The government is eyeing a mega budget for the next year 2021-2022 aiming to rejuvenate the country’s financial sector for ensuring sustainable economic growth.

Besides, the government is going to declare fresh incentive package ahead of the next budget to keep the economy afloat as the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has already begun.

The finance ministry is going to propose a huge budget of Tk six lakh crore for the next fiscal.

The target for the National Board of Revenue (NBR) is estimated at around Tk 3.5 lakh crore.

The government is going to focus particularly on health, education and employment to ensure sustainable economic growth.

Incentive package implementation strategies are being redesigned ahead of next budget to expand facilities for export-oriented industries and services, rural economy, repair of damaged cottages, small and medium enterprises, a senior official of finance ministry said.

Various new incentives are being made to cope with the Corona second wave, including expansion of the social security sector and various other plans to keep the economy strong, he added.

A meeting of the Co-ordination Council was held on Wednesday to finalise the draft of various aspects of the current and next budget, he said.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal chaired the virtual meeting from abroad, he added.

Another high official of the finance ministry told Bangladesh Post in the condition of anonymity, “We are keeping the reality in mind in the preparation of the next budget. The next budget will be the budget for the recovery of the economy.”

Since we are getting the vaccine, we hope that the economy will return to its past speed with the implementation of budget, he mentioned.

For this, work is being done to make a budget by giving importance to health, education and employment, he added.

“This was a very important meeting. The finance minister is currently abroad. From there he has virtually connected with us. We have highlighted all the issues before him through power point,” he further said.

However, it may take time until June to finalize the budget, he mentioned.

According to sources, the budget for the next fiscal year may be increased by Tk 32,000 crore to Tk 6,00,000 crore.

The size of the budget for the current fiscal year 2020-21 was fixed at Tk 5,68,000 crore.

Due to Corona, the revenue situation in the current financial year is not good. The government is looking for new ways to increase revenue.

If the situation continues, the revenue deficit of Tk 85,000 crore in the last financial year may increase by the end of the current financial year.

Despite all this, the finance ministry is estimating a huge target of Tk 350,000 crore for the NBR in the next budget, up Tk 20,000 crore from the current fiscal year amounting to Tk 3,30,000 crore.

In the next fiscal year, the deficit against huge expenditure and income may exceed six percent.

However, the government tries to keep deficit within five percent. In the next budget, it is planned to keep inflation at a tolerable level of 5.5 percent.