Amid the Russia-Ukraine war and global food price hike, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal placed emphasis on boosting food production to ensure food security in the country.

After the Awami League government came to power in 2009, it took up several gigantic development projects with a view to transforming the country’s communication and transport infrastructure.

The need for expanding the coverage of social protection schemes with new approaches has never been felt so badly than now as people are struggling to keep their heads above water amid one crisis on top of another.

The government is planning to invest $80 billion to shift the country from climate-vulnerable to a sustainable climate-resilient country under Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan (MCPP) by 2030, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said yesterday while unveiling the national budget for the fiscal year 2022-2023.

A universal pension scheme for citizens aged 61 and above will be introduced from fiscal 2022-23, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday.

With prices of mobile phones and broadband internet set to go up in the next fiscal year, the proposed budget would not be favourable to further development of the ICT sector, experts have said.

Withdrawal of the existing 5 percent advance tax on gold import has been proposed in the budget for fiscal 2022-23 to encourage import of the precious metal through formal channel and discourage its smuggling.

The government has proposed an allocation of Tk 82,745 crore to run its subsidy programme for 2022-23, an increase of 53.7 percent from this fiscal year’s original outlay, creating a challenge to macroeconomic stability.

Let’s consider, for the ease of understanding, that the government has proposed an expenditure plan involving Tk 100. In this

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal unveiled a proposed budget of Tk 678,064 crore for 2022-23 fiscal year in the national parliament today.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has reached the National Parliament to present the National Budget for the financial year 2022-23 today.

The government should take adequate measures to make it easier for businesses to operate, said a noted entrepreneur.

The budget should focus on time-befitting strategies in order to cut the cost of doing business and raise trade and investment competitiveness, said Rizwan Rahman, president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).

The budget for the next fiscal year should be framed by taking into account the new challenges facing the economy and the cost of living crisis confronting people, said a noted economist.

The government must ensure a prudent macroeconomic management and coordination between fiscal and monetary policies to help Bangladesh ride out the current crisis, said Monzur Hossain, research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.

The government should control import demand and cut public expenditure to lessen pressure facing the economy as well as expand social safety net programmes to help poor and low-income households cope with higher inflation, said Zahid Hussain, a noted economist.

What is the purpose of the national budget? In essence, it is to allocate scarce resources.

How can they contribute to the budget without taking part in the discussions?

The government plans to boost exports by promoting large industries and send a record number of migrant workers abroad to raise foreign currency reserves.

The government is not keeping a separate allocation for vaccines in the next fiscal year’s budget as it pulls back from vaccine procurement given the high inoculation rate and low infection rates.