UNB, Dhaka :Parliament on Thursday passed the Tk 3,40,605 crore national budget for FY 2016-’17, the 3rd budget of the current Awami League government, aimed at higher GDP growth, lower inflation and gearing up investment.Finance Minister AMA Muhith moved the Appropriations Bill, 2016 seeking a budgetary allocation of Tk 464553,97,85,000 which was passed by voice vote.A total of 242 MPs joined the general discussion on the proposed budget in the House for a total of 58 hours and 11 minutes. Following the proposal mooted in the House by the Finance Ministry for the parliamentary approval of appropriation of fund for meeting necessary development and non-development expenditures of the government, the ministers concerned placed justifications for the expenditures by their respective ministries, through 56 demands for grant. Earlier, parliament rejected by voice vote a total of 420 cut-motions that stood in the name of opposition and independent members on 56 demands for grants for different ministries.A total of nine MPs from Jatiya Party and independent submitted their cut-motions on the budget. The nine MPs are Jatiya Party lawmakers Kazi Firoz Rashid, Fakhrul Imam, Nurul Islam Omar and Nurul Islam Milon, and independent lawmaker Selim Uddin, Rustum Ali Faraji, Tahjib Alam Siddique and Abdul Matin.They were allowed to participate in the discussion on seven demands for grants related to the Bank and Financial Institutions Division, the Planning Division, the Education Ministry, the Health Ministry, the Local Government Division, the Disaster Management and Relief Ministry and the Religious Affairs Ministry.In reply to the cut-motions of the demand for grant related to theBank and Financial Institution, Muhith said they are also worried about plundering in the banking sector.”We’re taking steps to prevent the recurrence. We’re investigating all the incidents and cases are being filed against those involved. You can be assured that the ACC will bring them under trial,” he said.Later, Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury applied guillotine to quicken the process of passing the demands for grants for different ministries. Opposition and independent MPs were present at the House when the Appropriation Bill was passed in Parliament. Earlier on June 2, the Finance Minister placed the Tk 3,40,605 crore national budget for FY17. The size of the National Budget is 15.5 percent, higher than the current fiscal year’s original budget and 29 percent higher than the revised one. The budget forecast the GDP growth rate at 7.2 percent while keeping inflation within 5.8 percent.The new budget has allocated Tk 2,15,744 crore as non-development expenditure while Tk 1,10,700 crore under the Annual Development Programme (ADP). Muhith in his budget speech titled ‘Marching towards growth development and equitable society’ said the communication sector has received the highest allocation in the development outlay followed by human resource, agriculture and power and energy.According to budget documents, the revenue collection target for the FY has been estimated at Tk 2,42,752 crore which is 12.04 percent of the GDP.
