SM Mizanur Rahman :
The 10th Parliament goes into its third national budget session at 5:00pm tomorrow (Wednesday).
This will be the country’s 45th budget and the 17th of the Awami League government while the 10th for Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
The Finance Minister will place the national budget for the fiscal year (2016-17) the following day on Thursday.
The size of the new budget is likely to be of Tk 3.4 lakh crore with a target of 7.2 per cent growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Earlier, President Abdul Hamid convened the Parliament
session exercising his power bestowed upon him by Article 72 (1) of the Constitution.
Before the House goes into the budget session, the meeting of Business Advisory Committee will be held at the Parliament Complex with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair to fix duration and businesses of the session.
The last session of Parliament was prorogued on May 5 having nine working days.
The Finance Ministry has already started its preparatory works to present the national budget properly.
At least 13 steps, including ensuring secrecy of budget documents and speech, sending those to Parliament, copy distribution, holding post-budget press conference and issuance for entry passes for elite as well as diplomats have been taken up.
Muhith at different recent pre-budget discussions said there would be a separate allocation for mega projects in the upcoming budget.
It will also have a focus on human resource development, employment, and power and energy sector.
Besides, the budget related proceedings, Parliament sources said numbers of important bills are expected to be placed and passed during the session.
The government plans to formulate a separate budget for transformational mega projects in the next fiscal year, according to the Finance Ministry sources.
The Finance Ministry is thinking to prepare a capital budget for the mega projects. The government has to go for transformational projects with expenditure running into billions of dollars.
Meanwhile, the Finance Minister said the budget size for the upcoming fiscal year would be about Tk 340,000 crore, which is 15 per cent higher than the current year’s as the fiscal outlay would keep a provision for financing some mega projects in the coming fiscal.
The next budget would also have some other special features those are designed in line with the government’s target of promoting the country to middle-income group by 2021.
Among the mega projects, the government is borrowing $12.5 billion from Russia for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, he said.
The Finance Ministry sources said, budget has been prepared with the government’s own resources and concessional funds the government mostly takes from the multilateral donor agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
On an average, Bangladesh receives $4 billion in concessional loans per year. The Finance Minister said that the new budget would be the catalyst for taking the country to a higher growth trajectory.
The proposed budget would also have a strategy to expand the tax base by bringing potential taxpayers under the tax net. There are now around 17 lakh TIN (tax identification number) holders.
Among them, nearly 12 lakh submit their income tax returns. The government has a target to raise the number of active taxpayers to 30 lakh in next four years.
Any person or organisation at home and abroad can send their feedback, opinion or recommendation by filling up a form after downloading it from the website.
The Finance Minister will address a post budget press conference at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium at 4:00pm on Friday.
Like previous year, the budget this year too will be presented on PowerPoint and will be made available on the website of the finance department at www.mof.gov.bd.
The 10th Parliament goes into its third national budget session at 5:00pm tomorrow (Wednesday).
This will be the country’s 45th budget and the 17th of the Awami League government while the 10th for Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
The Finance Minister will place the national budget for the fiscal year (2016-17) the following day on Thursday.
The size of the new budget is likely to be of Tk 3.4 lakh crore with a target of 7.2 per cent growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Earlier, President Abdul Hamid convened the Parliament
session exercising his power bestowed upon him by Article 72 (1) of the Constitution.
Before the House goes into the budget session, the meeting of Business Advisory Committee will be held at the Parliament Complex with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair to fix duration and businesses of the session.
The last session of Parliament was prorogued on May 5 having nine working days.
The Finance Ministry has already started its preparatory works to present the national budget properly.
At least 13 steps, including ensuring secrecy of budget documents and speech, sending those to Parliament, copy distribution, holding post-budget press conference and issuance for entry passes for elite as well as diplomats have been taken up.
Muhith at different recent pre-budget discussions said there would be a separate allocation for mega projects in the upcoming budget.
It will also have a focus on human resource development, employment, and power and energy sector.
Besides, the budget related proceedings, Parliament sources said numbers of important bills are expected to be placed and passed during the session.
The government plans to formulate a separate budget for transformational mega projects in the next fiscal year, according to the Finance Ministry sources.
The Finance Ministry is thinking to prepare a capital budget for the mega projects. The government has to go for transformational projects with expenditure running into billions of dollars.
Meanwhile, the Finance Minister said the budget size for the upcoming fiscal year would be about Tk 340,000 crore, which is 15 per cent higher than the current year’s as the fiscal outlay would keep a provision for financing some mega projects in the coming fiscal.
The next budget would also have some other special features those are designed in line with the government’s target of promoting the country to middle-income group by 2021.
Among the mega projects, the government is borrowing $12.5 billion from Russia for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, he said.
The Finance Ministry sources said, budget has been prepared with the government’s own resources and concessional funds the government mostly takes from the multilateral donor agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
On an average, Bangladesh receives $4 billion in concessional loans per year. The Finance Minister said that the new budget would be the catalyst for taking the country to a higher growth trajectory.
The proposed budget would also have a strategy to expand the tax base by bringing potential taxpayers under the tax net. There are now around 17 lakh TIN (tax identification number) holders.
Among them, nearly 12 lakh submit their income tax returns. The government has a target to raise the number of active taxpayers to 30 lakh in next four years.
Any person or organisation at home and abroad can send their feedback, opinion or recommendation by filling up a form after downloading it from the website.
The Finance Minister will address a post budget press conference at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium at 4:00pm on Friday.
Like previous year, the budget this year too will be presented on PowerPoint and will be made available on the website of the finance department at www.mof.gov.bd.
