Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks in parliament in Dhaka, Bangladesh on June 11, 2020. The Bangladeshi government has unveiled a record 5.68-trillion-taka (about 66.9 billion U.S. dollars) national budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year starting from July. (PID/Handout via Xinhua)
by Naim-Ul-Karim
DHAKA, June 11 (Xinhua) -- The Bangladeshi government has unveiled a record 5.68-trillion-taka (about 66.9 billion U.S. dollars) national budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year starting from July.
The government announced the massive spending for economic recovery and projected economic growth of 8.2 percent in the annual budget.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday placed before the parliament the annual budget of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government.
In his speech, Kamal said the budget for the 2020-21 fiscal (July 2020-June 2021) has been prepared with the strategies required to be undertaken to meet the emergencies in Bangladesh's health sector and recover from the economic hardship.
He said sufficient allocation has been made in the proposed budget to satisfy the needs of all ministries and divisions to address the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.
"In light of the comprehensive plan and strategies described above, we have declared a number of stimulus packages to support the emergency healthcare services, to protect jobs and to achieve smooth economic recovery. The economic recovery packages declared so far has totaled Tk. 1,03,117 crore."
He said the total outlay of the proposed budget for the next fiscal year 2020-21 is 5,680 billion takas, up by 8.6 percent over that of the original budget of the outgoing fiscal year 2019-20.
"In FY 2020-21, the size of the total expenditure has been estimated at Tk. 5,68,000 crore, which is 17.9 percent of GDP."
He said the total allocation for operating and other expenditures is estimated at 3,628.55 billion takas, while the allocation for the annual development program (ADP) is 2,051.45 billion takas.
According to the proposal, the overall budget deficit will be 1,900 billion takas, which takes 6 percent of GDP.
Out of the total deficit, Kamal said 800.17 billion will be financed from external sources, while 1,099.83 billion takas from domestic sources.
He said bearing in mind the realities at hand and their planned reforms in revenue management, the government have set the target of total revenue income in the fiscal year 2020-21 at 3,780 billion takas.
On the expenditure side, he said health, agriculture and employment creation have given priority while allocating resources for the ADP in the next fiscal year.
Due to the fall in exports and lower-than-expected growth in remittances as a result of long and sustained worldwide lockdowns arising from COVID-19, the GDP growth rate of the current fiscal year has been revised downward at 5.2 percent.
However, Kamal said in post-COVID-19 recovery, the growth rate is projected at 8.2 percent for FY 2020-21 in line with the long-term plans. "We expect that inflation will be 5.4 percent during the period."
Since March 8, the virus has spread to nearly every Bangladeshi district and the number of cases rose to 78,052 with 1,049 deaths so far.
The government declared a general holiday from March 26 and later extended the shutdown in phases till May 30 to quell the spread of the pandemic. (1 U.S. dollar equals to about 85 taka) Enditem