The think-tank presented FY24 budget analysis today

No budget in the last 14 years has been implemented fully

The government has not framed the national budget for the fiscal year of 2023-24 based on the prescription of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today.

The think-tank says in its budget briefing

In April, the inflation rate in Bangladesh stood at 9.24 percent. And for some, this economic term has become an issue for deliberation in brightly-lit air-conditioned conference rooms.

Self-contradictory is what best describes Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal’s fifth budget, and the last of the Awami League-led government’s current term.

About six months ahead of the next general election, the government yesterday proposed the last national budget of its five-year term mainly keeping the ruling Awami League’s vision of a “Smart Bangladesh” by 2041 and the election in mind.

The story of Bangladesh’s economic growth is predicated on solid ground.

Individuals who are required to submit income tax returns to avail various government services will have to pay a minimum tax of Tk 2,000 even if they don’t have taxable income.

The government has spent more than Tk 28,000 crore as farm subsidies in the last two fiscal years. However, marginal farmers claim that they get very little benefits out of that.

The government will depend heavily on borrowing from Bangladesh Bank to manage its budget deficit in the next fiscal year amid the tax authority’s continuous failure to generate adequate revenues, a reliance that may stoke inflationary pressures and worsen the current economic volatility. 

Though higher default loans and declining foreign currency reserves have been identified as the biggest risks to the economy of Bangladesh in recent times, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday fell short of coming up with any definitive measure to address the twin issues save offering some words of hope. 

The total amount of tax subsidies given in the form of rebates, discounts, exemptions, and reduced rates has been calculated to be at Tk 1,78,241 crore in the outgoing fiscal year 2022-23.

Education ministries got a chop for the next fiscal year as the proposed development allocation for them is lower than the allocation of the outgoing fiscal year.

People may not get any respite from increased healthcare cost as the share of the budget allocation for the health sector has been reduced for next fiscal compared to that of the outgoing year.

Although the size of allocation for social security programmes has enlarged, the government has made no significant changes to cushion the vulnerable groups of people from persistent inflationary pressure.

The proposed budget for 2023-24 is unrealistic and unattainable as the challenges that caused the economic growth to decelerate, foreign exchange reserves to dip and inflation to surge in the past one year still persist, said economists and think-tanks.  

BNP yesterday described the national budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year as a smart one for plundering public money.

If budget is Tk 100

The prices of many products and services are likely to go up owing to the proposed hikes in duties and value added tax in the 2023-24 national budget.