Finance Minister AMA Muhith BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Finance Minister of Bangladesh AMA Muhith is set to announce a possible BDT 4.02 trillion national budget today (Thursday) for the next fiscal year (FY).
The finance minister will start placing the budget in the Jatiya Sangsad (national parliament) from 1:30pm on the day aiming to achieve a 7.4 per cent economic growth by the end of FY 2017-18.
The finance minister may project the size the new budget at BDT 4.02 trillion, up by 17.5 per cent from BDT 3.40 trillion in the outgoing fiscal, according to officials.
They also said the minister may also propose BDT 2880 billion as overall government income, including BDT 910 billion in VAT (value added tax), and BDT 1122.66 billion as the budget deficit.
The big budget deficit, as usual, would be met by bank borrowing and loans from multilateral lenders and donors, the officials explained.
The issues including growth, investment, poverty, food security and infrastructure, would likely to get priority in the next fiscal policy and allocation as the finance minister at the pre-budget discussions clearly put special attention on changing economic status of the country from low to middle-income group by 2021.
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.
There will have a set of proposals for reforming further the country's revenue authorities by introducing new VAT law so the government could mobilise more internal resources and keep the budget deficit within 5.0 per cent.
Like in the previous year, the budget this year too will be presented on PowerPoint and will be made available on the website of the finance division --www.mof.gov.bd.
The budget documents will also be available on www.bangladesh.gov.bd, www.nbr-bd.org, www.plancomm.gov.bd, www.imed.gov.bd, www.bdpressinform.org and www.pmo.gov.bd.
Any person or organisation at home and abroad can send 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 in the capital Dhaka on June 2 at 3:00 pm on Friday.
BBN/SSR/AD