Finance Ministry has decided to start the pre-budget tripartite meetings with different ministries and bodies one month early of the schedule as the country, whose economy has been hit by political unrest, suffers fund shortage.
The meetings between finance ministry, planning ministry and the respective ministries and bodies will begin on February 17 when they traditionally start in mid-March.
The first meeting will be held with the Anti-Corruption Commission.
A total of 58 meetings will be held till March 15 at the finance division’s office, presided over by Finance Secretary Fazle Kabir.
Finance Division will be the last participant of the meeting.
The meetings will discuss total fund demands and earnings of the ministries, divisions and bodies for the next fiscal year.
As the government is depending on huge bank borrowings to meet the deficits, Finance Minister AMA Muhith made the directive to start early budget preparation.
A finance ministry official said the deficit could reach Tk67,353 crore equivalent to 5% of the gross domestic product (GDP). In the current fiscal, the deficit is 4.6% of GDP.
According to the finance ministry plans, Tk43,160 crore deficit will be managed by domestic borrowings, Tk32,947 crore from banks and the remaining part from the non-banking sources including the saving instruments.
The thin possibility of receiving necessary low-cost project funding from the external sources led the finance ministry to plan hefty bank borrowings.
