National Budget to be unveiled on 9 June : Finance minister

Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said that the upcoming national budget will be placed in Parliament on 9 June.

He announced this while briefing reporters after the two consecutive meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Wednesday.

Responding to reporters’ questions, Kamal said that he has no plan to increase the taxes.

“Lowest income tax will be set considering the affordability of the people. We will try to fix the minimum tax considering the increasing cost of living”, he told the reporters.

The finance minister said the government will control the import of luxury items. But there is no plan to control import of essential commodities.

He noted that both import and export have increased. But always import is larger than export and export cannot overtake import in our country.

“Some imports are directly related with projects which we have to allow. Some imports must be controlled as those are not always open”, he said.

He said as far as any internal vulnerability exists, these luxury items will be controlled.

“If the situation becomes normal, then we will allow import of these items”, he opined.

Referring to a report of the World Bank the finance minister said globally the market prices have gone up by 38 per cent while price of beef has increased by 35 per cent, chicken by 55 per cent, soya bean oils by 35 per cent, tea by 13 per cent, TSP fertiliser by 65 per cent and urea fertiliser by 135 per cent.

The government has to take coordinated measures to control the market, said Kamal.