Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday proposed the national budget for the fiscal year 2019-20 in the Parliament, with a record outlay of Tk 5,23,190 crore, which is 18.1 percent of GDP.
The next budget gave thrust on creating investment friendly environment for private sector, expanding export trade, creating business friendly tax-regime, bringing about required reforms in the financial sector, and increasing public sector investment to take the country’s GDP growth to higher trajectory.
“The purpose of the next budget would be reduce poverty, generate employment and attract foreign investment. Special measures will be taken to bring the marginal people into the mainstream of development and reduce the income inequality,” said AHM Mustafa Kamal while presenting his budget speech which themed “Bangladesh on Pathway to Prosperity: Time is Ours, Time for Bangladesh.”
His maiden budget speech was marked by important reforms in banking sector and several steps to enhance the competitiveness of all sectors, including agriculture, industry, exports, real estate and services.
Finance Minister earlier came to the Parliament from the hospital to present the budget speech.
He went to Dhaka’s Apollo Hospital for a medical check-up on Tuesday evening as he has been suffering from a fever for the few days. He has been staying at the hospital on the advice of doctors.
In his budget speech, Mustafa Kamal has vowed to raise the tax-GDP ratio to 15 percent in two years from present 10 percent.
He also proposed keeping tax-free income limit for individuals and corporate tax rates unchanged. In the fiscal year 2019-20, the total allocation for operating and other expenditure has been set at Tk 3,20,469 crore and allocation for annual development programme at 2,02,721.
The total revenue collection has been estimated at Tk 3,77,810 crore for the next fiscal year beginning from 1 July, 2019 and ending on 30 June, 2020. Of this revenue goal, Tk 3,25,600 crore will be collected through the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Tk14,500 crore from non-NBR sources and Tk 37,710 crore non-tax revenue (NTR). The budget deficit has been estimated at Tk 1,45, 380 crore, keeping it 5.0 percent of GDP.
In financing the deficit, Tk 68,016 crore has been projected to come from external sources and Tk 77,363 crore from domestic sources. Of the domestic financing, Tk 47,364 crore would be borrowed from banking system and Tk 30,000 crore from savings certificates and other non-bank sources. For the next fiscal year, the GDP growth has been projected at 8.2 percent and yearly average inflation at 5.5 per cent. Finance Minister said our GDP grew consistently at a very high rate in the last decade.
“We expect a GDP growth of 8.13 percent in FY2018-19. Our commitment is to achieve a growth rate of 10 per cent by FY2023-24, and maintain that rate until 2041 so that we can lay a solid foundation for becoming a high-income country by that time.
“To achieve this objective, GDP growth rate has been projected at 8.2 percent for FY2019-20,” said Kamal.
Finance Minister in his budget proposals unveiled the plan to create some one crore new jobs by establishing 100 Economic Zones (EZs) across the country.
“Construction of 100 EZs across the country is in progress. Almost one crore new jobs will be created in these EZs,” he added. At one stage of budget speech, Mustafa Kamal fell sick and he sought permission to sit down and present the speech. Considering his illness, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina extended her assistance to the Minister saying that she wanted to read out the rest of the budget. Later, she presented the remainder of the budget speech at the Parliament.
Earlier, the budget was cleared by the Cabinet at a special meeting at the Parliament Complex, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
The budget for 2019-20 is 18 per cent bigger than the original budget (Tk 4,64,573 crore) of the outgoing fiscal.
The next fiscal’s budget announced the implementation of new VAT law with multiple rates from July 1, and it will be a key tool for NBR’s additional revenue income.
