The country has some risks towards achieving 7.2% GDP growth target in the current fiscal year, Finance Minister AMA Muhith told parliament yesterday.
He said the growth target would not be difficult to achieve if “the private sector investment was not hampered by the destructive political programmes and the expected agricultural growth can be achieved.”
The minister mentioned as possible risks that the insufficient fuel supply which could hurt affect private sector investment and the current negative flow of remittance which might restrict the expansion of private consumption expenditure.
He was placing first quarter (July-September) report on the implementation of the current fiscal budget.
Revenue target also could not be achieved in the current fiscal due to political instability and ongoing global recession, said AMA Muhith in reply to a question of Awami League MP Mustafizur Rahman.
The major challenge during the rest of the fiscal would be to boost private sector investment and maintain macroeconomic stability, he added.
Muhith however said despite the risks, the government had decided not to revise down the economic growth target.
“The industrial development indices have already showed uptrend, and if it continues along with a good harvest of Aman-Boro, GDP target could be attained.”
Earlier, the international Monetary Fund had forecasted Bangladesh’s GDP to grow at 5.5% this fiscal while the World Bank projected 5.7%.
The total budget expenditure during the first quarter stood at Tk31,890 crore, which was 11.4% more than the same period last fiscal. Only 14.3% of the first quarter expenditure target was achieved.
The amount spent in the July-September of last fiscal was Tk28,638 crore. For the current fiscal, the total outlay of budget was announced Tk222,483.15 crore. In first quarter, Tk25,826 crore of revenue budget was spent, up 9.5% from one year ago.
The annual development programme (ADP) implementation rate increased by 20.2% this year compared to previous year’s first quarter.
This first quarter, ADP expenditure amounted to Tk6,064 crore while it was Tk5,046 crore one year ago.
In the quarter 1 this fiscal, 10 big ministries and divisions spent only 14% of their allocation. These ministries and divisions received 44.1% allocation of total ADP oulay.
Of them, Power Division spent 7%, Road Division 9% and Bridges Division 17.7%, Local Government Division 12.28% and Ministry of Primary Education 14%. The railway ministry spent 51%, the highest among others during the quarter. The country paid a total of Tk2,758 crore loans in the fisrt three months of the fiscal. Last year’s quarter 1, it was Tk1,677 crore.
