Stimulus programmes will continue in the 2022-2023 fiscal year to accelerate development by speeding up the recovery process and bringing back the economy to its pre-pandemic state, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
"While the difficulties arising from the Covid pandemic have eased up, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has brought about a new crisis," the minister said during the budget speech on Thursday.
"We have considered this growing crisis in determining the priority areas of the government in the budget. Special emphasis has been given on the implementation of various programmes to generate employment in the industrial sector, CMSME, service sector and rural informal sector and employment for the returnee migrant workers," he added.
He further said that the implementation of the stimulus packages announced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will continue to offset the loss in the affected enterprises, keep the economy afloat and help the temporarily jobless workers during the pandemic.
The minister said that the programmes adopted by the government with a focus on increasing the coverage of social security, housing for the homeless poor and distributing free or low-cost food among low-income people will continue.
He added that one of the priorities of the government is to provide emergency financial assistance to the low-income people who become jobless or their income is reduced due to natural disasters like floods, flash-floods, storm surges, hail storms, cyclones, among others.
"In FY2021-2022, we established a fund called 'Fund for Managing the Shocks of Natural Disasters'. We would like to continue this support in the next fiscal year,” he said.
"Therefore, I propose an allocation of Tk 5,000 crore in the budget for the fund for 2022-2023 fiscal year," he added.
