Why did the opposition not propose any amendments to the Finance Bill?

Opposition lawmakers were vocal during parliamentary discussions on the proposed budget for the 2026–27 fiscal year. A total of 91 opposition MPs criticised various aspects of the budget and called for changes.

However, none of them submitted any clause-by-clause amendment specifying the changes they wanted to the Finance Bill.

People familiar with parliamentary affairs say it is rare for the opposition not to submit any amendments to a Finance Bill.

The National Parliament passed the Appropriation Bill on Tuesday and the Finance Bill 2026 on Monday. Changes to customs duties and taxes are introduced primarily through the Finance Bill. Any MP seeking to amend the proposed duty or tax measures must submit a formal amendment to the bill in accordance with parliamentary procedures.

Under parliamentary rules, once the minister concerned moves that a bill be “taken into immediate consideration,” MPs may propose that it be sent for public opinion. Following debate, such proposals are generally rejected. At the next stage, before the bill is passed, MPs may submit specific amendments identifying the provisions they wish to change.

Notices for proposals to seek public opinion or amend a bill must be submitted within a prescribed timeframe. The minister concerned may indicate whether he or she accepts or rejects any amendment. The proposals are then decided by a voice vote. It is through this amendment process that changes are made to a bill.

Following nearly 46 hours of debate on the budget, the Finance Bill was placed before Parliament for passage on Monday. Although several opposition MPs proposed sending the bill for public opinion, none submitted any amendments.

Two parliamentary officials, speaking to Prothom Alo on condition of anonymity, said they had witnessed five or six parliamentary terms during their careers but could not recall any previous instance in which the opposition had failed to submit amendments to a Finance Bill. They said this year’s budget was an exception.

Officials at the Parliament Secretariat said opposition MPs typically submit the majority of amendment proposals on any bill. The ruling party MPs may also propose amendments, and those are generally accepted. However, opposition amendments are not invariably rejected; in many instances, they too have been accepted.

This year, 11 MPs submitted a total of 64 amendment proposals to the Finance Bill. All of them belonged to the ruling party, and every amendment was adopted. The most significant change was raising the tax-free income threshold to Tk 400,000. The proposed Finance Bill had initially set the threshold at Tk 375,000.

Prime Minister and Leader of the House Tarique Rahman, while taking part in the budget debate, drew the finance minister’s attention to the proposal to raise the tax-free income threshold to Tk 400,000.

Later, ruling party MP Humam Quader Chowdhury proposed an amendment to the relevant schedule of the Finance Bill to revise the tax slabs accordingly. After his proposal was adopted, the tax-free income threshold for the new fiscal year was fixed at Tk 400,000.

People familiar with parliamentary procedure said that unless such specific amendments are formally proposed and approved by Parliament, no changes can be made to a bill. In other words, even if demands are raised during the budget debate, they must be reflected through written amendments to the relevant clauses of the Finance Bill.

An example was seen in the proposal to reduce duties on bicycle parts. During the budget debate on 29 June, after Leader of the House Tarique Rahman delivered his speech, Opposition Leader Shafiqur Rahman orally proposed the withdrawal of all duties on bicycles.

The Leader of the House then asked the finance minister to examine the proposal. Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury responded that it would be better if a specific proposal was submitted.

However, no written amendment on the matter was submitted to the relevant provision of the Finance Bill. As a result, no reduction in duties on bicycle parts was included in the bill.

Shortly after the Finance Bill was passed, however, Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury informed Parliament that the government had accepted the opposition leader’s proposal to reduce duties on imported bicycle parts.

Since the customs provisions had already been finalised with the passage of the Finance Bill, he said, the government would announce a decision on the matter later.

Asked why the opposition had not submitted any amendments to the Finance Bill, Jamaat-e-Islami MP Najibur Rahman told Prothom Alo that the opposition had voiced its objections to what it considered anti-people tax proposals, and that the ruling party had largely taken those concerns into account.

In particular, he noted, the proposal to allow the whitening of undisclosed money had been dropped.

Najibur Rahman further said the opposition’s principal concern was the absence of a credible implementation plan for the budget.

Structural weaknesses, lack of transparency, planning deficiencies and shortcomings in implementation capacity could not be addressed through minor amendments to the Finance Bill, he said.

According to him, taking those issues into consideration, the opposition chose not to submit amendment proposals. Instead, it proposed that the entire bill be sent for public opinion, but the proposal was defeated in a vote.