Special Correspondent :
The government’s subsidy spending will go up by over 10 percent in the next fiscal due mainly to additional requirement in power and energy, agriculture and export subsidy.
The subsidy spending has been estimated at Tk 31,000 crore in the next fiscal (2018-19) from Tk 27,500 cr in the current fiscal (2017-18), officials said.
Some Tk 23,000 crore had been earmarked for subsidy in the budget for 2016-17.
“The government planned to boost subsidy expenditure in the next fiscal because of additional subsidy requirement from power, agriculture, food and export sectors. These sectors will require additional subsidy due to rising oil and commodity prices in global market,” a senior finance ministry official told The New Nation yesterday.
The agro subsidy is estimated to shoot up to Tk 9,500 crore in the next budget on account of rising fertilizer prices in the international market. The current fiscal’s budget earmarked Tk 9,000 crore as agro subsidy.
In the upcoming budget, Tk 9,200 crore has been allocated as power and energy subsidy.
However, no option of subsidy was kept for the power and energy sector in this year’s budget.
“The power and energy subsidy, in particularly, will go up significantly in next fiscal as more electricity has to be purchased from oil based quick rental power plants,” said the finance ministry official.
The export subsidy is also set to shoot up to Tk 4,500 crore in the upcoming budget from Tk 4,000 cr in the budget for the current fiscal.
“The government has increased by another Tk 500 crore in the next budget to bring more export sector under the export subsidy package,” said the official.
A separate allocation of Tk 3,000 crore will also be made in the next budget for LNG import.
Food subsidy has been given at Tk 4,000 crore in this fiscal. It will remain the same in the next fiscal too to carry on the government’s OMS of rice at low prices to poor and ultra poor people.
Tk 1,500 crore subsidy would also be given to other sectors in next fiscal along with Tk 500 cr subsidy for jute and jute goods export.
The finance ministry official said the government earlier trimmed the subsidy spending thanks to crash in crude oil prices in the global market. “But the recent recovery in oil prices forced the government to make additional allocation for subsidy in power and energy.”
