BSS, Dhaka :Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith will announce the annual budget for the fiscal year 2014-15 (FY15) at the Jatiya Sangsad on June 5, a Finance Ministry official told BSS.The official said, the date for announcing the budget for the next financial year is almost final though no official directive has been given yet.This will be the country’s 43rd budget and the 15th budget of the Awami League government.The budget for the current 2013-14 financial year (FY14), announced on June 6, 2013, was the last budget of the previous five-year tenure of the Awami League-led grand alliance government that came to power in a land-slide victory in 2008 general election.Finance Minister AMA Muhith is unveiling the new budget early next month, which will be the first budget for the second consecutive five-year term of the grand alliance government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.The finance minister already indicated that the size of the national budget would be around Taka 2,50,000 crore. The original size of the budget for the current FY14 was Taka 2,22,491 crore, which was later revised down to Taka 2,11,220 crore.Muhith is announcing the budget with higher allocation after the budget monitoring and resources committee at a meeting on April 2 recommended an outlay of the budget between Taka 2,50,000 crore and Taka 2,55,000 crore.The size of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) would be Taka 80,000 crore, projecting 32 percent growth over the revised ADP of Taka 60,000 crore for the current fiscal year. The original size of the ADP for FY14 was 65,870 crore.The target of inflation would be kept at around 7.0 percent for the next fiscal when the GDP growth would be projected at 7.3 percent.The deficit would be between Taka 67,000 crore and Taka 68,000 crore when efforts would be put in place to keep the deficit under 5 percent of the projected GDP for the coming fiscal.To maintain this lower level of budget deficit, the finance minister last week told the consultative meeting of the National Revenue Board (NBR) that the revenue collection should be expedited as contribution of revenue to the country’s gross national income (GNI) was hovering around 3.0 percent in the past five years.He said the tax-GDP ratio, which is now 13 percent, should be increased to 18 percent in the next five years for sustainable development.
