Finance Minister AMA Muhith is hopeful of attaining 6.5% economic growth in the current fiscal year (2013-14).
The minister said this while placing the half-yearly review of the budget for the fiscal year 2013-14 in the parliament on Monday, BSS reports.
He said the rationality of achieving 6.5% growth has been found in the comparative analysis between the macroeconomic indices of the first six months of the current fiscal year and the last fiscal year (2012-13).
Muhith also said the government has all preparations to achieve the status of a middle-income country before or by 2021.
"It is true that attaining 7.2% growth as envisioned in the current budget will not be possible because of destructive activities, including hartals, blockades by BNP-Jamaat . . . but still we are hopeful of achieving 6.5% growth after analyzing the trend and nature of the macroeconomic indicators of July-December of 2013," he said.
Muhith blasted the BNP-Jamaat clique for carrying out massive destructive activities from September, 2013 to January 2014 to ruin the economy but the nation unitedly thwarted their heinous conspiracy.
Most of the economic indicators are now on positive trend, he said, adding that export earnings witnessed a 16.6% rise to $16.7 billion from $12.6 billion and tax-revenue income increased by 12.2% to Tk 50,338 crore during July- December of the fiscal year 2013-14 from Tk 44,864 crore of the same period of the last fiscal year.
Import costs went up by 13.9% to $18.75 billion during July-December of the fiscal year 2013-14 from $16.45 billion of the same period of the last fiscal year and the rate of inflation came down to 7.5% in December 2013 from 8.7% of December 2012.
The finance minister said forex reserve stood at $18.09 billion on December 30, 2013. Credit flow to private sector witnessed a fall marginally in July-December 2013 as the credit growth came down to 5.9 percent from 6.1% of the same period of the last fiscal year, he said, adding that inward remittance also came down to $6.8 billion from US$ 7.8 billion.
About the revenue collection situation, Muhith said he is optimistic about achieving the revenue collection target of Tk1,67,459 crore for current fiscal year as revenue collection always goes up in the last part of the financial year.
The government has collected Tk64,715 crore revenue up to December 2013, up by 8.1% from the same period of the last fiscal year, he added.
Of total projected outlay (development and non- development) of Tk2,22,483 crore in the current budget, the government has spent Tk 76,881 crore, including Tk15,469 crore of Annual Development Programme (ADP). The growths of non- development expenditure are 20.27% and development expenditure 20.78%, he added.
Muhith said power sector is priority area in the budgets and the government will continue to invest in the power sector. The government has already been able to increase the power generation capacity to 10,341-megawatt, he said, adding that a total of 1560 mw power will be added to the national grid in 2014.
He said additional 1000mmcfd of gas is expected to be produced from the 6 newly developed wells of Bibiyana Gas Field. Formulation of the National Coal Policy is now underway, he added.
The finance minister has also focused on various programmes taken by the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for the development of agriculture, education, health, human resources and infrastructure. Muhith said possibilities and potentials are there for Bangladesh to be a Middle-income country before or by 2021 but continuation of implementation of the development plans and programmes is important in achieving this target.
"We are hopeful that Vision-2021 will be achieved under the leadership of the present government . . . because Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is efficiently maintaining the pace of development," the finance minister added.