The budget for the next fiscal year has been finalised at Tk2.97tn, a greater than 19% rise over the outgoing year’s budget, finance ministry officials said.
The budget outlay of the fiscal year 2014-15 is Tk2.5tn.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith is scheduled to place the national budget for fiscal year 2015-16 in parliament on Thursday.
Officials said the main reason behind the increase in the budget is the implementation of the new pay scale for public servants from the upcoming fiscal year.
Under the new pay scale, the basic salaries of the public servants have been raised by around 100% with various incentives.
If the pay commission recommendations are implemented, an extra Tk220bn will be required to pay basic salaries alone.
Officials said next fiscal year’s budget will not be any surprise as some key numbers and many proposals are already circulating.
Besides, some small projects will be introduced in the year, including roads and highways in Bangladeshi enclaves in India.
In a nutshell, with an outlay of Tk2.97tn, the Annual Development Programme will be Tk970bn and the budget deficit will be below 5% of GDP. Budget deficit is likely to be above Tk880bn.
An amount of Tk301.34bn of the deficit will be met by funds from foreign sources while the remaining part will be collected from local sources including loans from the banking system. The total revenue earnings during the next fiscal year will be Tk2.12tn.
The government intends to reinvigorate the growth rate to 7.1%, raise tax-GDP ratio, boost investment and create employments, among other goals.
Local government ministry is going to get the year’s biggest allocation of Tk188.72bn, followed by defense ministry Tk183.77bn and education ministry Tk171.13bn, according to the updated information from officials.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith is scheduled to present his ninth budget at 3 pm at the Jatiya Sangsad as the second budget by the grand alliance government, said a handout yesterday.
To make the budget more participatory, all the information and important documents of the budget would be available at the website of the Finance Department (www.mof.gov.bd).
Any person or organisation at home and abroad will send their feedback, opinion or recommendation by filling up a form following download it from the website.
A post-budget press conference will be held at Osmani Memorial Auditorium at 4pm on June 5.