Tk 6.78tr budget proposed for 2022-23 fiscal

Budget 2022-23
Prothom Alo illustration

Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has proposed a Tk 6.78 trillion (678,064 crore) budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year.

The finance minister placed the proposed budget titled “Return to the Path of Development; Leaving the Covid-19 Behind” in parliament on Thursday.

The proposed budget is 15.2 per cent of total GDP, which is Tk 44.50 trillion (4,449,959 crore).

The minister proposed an allocation of Tk 4.32 trillion (431,998 crore) for the operating and other expenditures and an allocation of Tk 2.46 trillion (246,066 crore) for annual development programme (ADP).

The total revenue earnings for the 2022-23 fiscal has been estimated at Tk 4.33 trillion (433,000 crore). Of this, National Board of Revenue (NBR) will collect Tk 3.70 trillion (370,000 crore) and another Tk 630 billion (63,000 crore) will be collected from other sources.

The overall budget deficit for the proposed budget will stand at Tk 2.45 trillion (245,064 crore) which is 5.5 per cent of GDP. It was 6.2 per cent in the last budget. Of the deficit, Tk 987.29 billion (98,729 crore) will be financed from external sources while Tk 1.46 trillion (146,335 crore) will come from domestic sources and that includes Tk 1.06 trillion (106,334 crore) will be financed from banking sector.

Allocation of Tk 867.98 billion (86,798 crore) has been proposed for overall agriculture and rural development sub-sector, Tk 790.26 billion (79,026 crore) for communication infrastructure sub-sector and Tk 260.65 billion (26,065 crore) for power and energy sub-sector.

An allocation of Tk 1.83 trillion (183,425 crore) has been proposed for social infrastructure; out of this, allocation for the human resources sector (education, health and other related sectors) stands at Tk 1.68 trillion (167,524 crore). An allocation of Tk 2008.60 billion has also been proposed for the physical infrastructure sector.

An allocation of Tk 1.53 trillion (153,208 crore) has been proposed for general services sector and Tk 531.55 billion (53,155 crore) for public-private partnership (PPP), financial assistance to different industries, subsidies, equity investments in state-owned, commercial and financial institutions.

Besides, an allocation of Tk 803.75 (80,375 crore) has been allocated for the payments of interest - 11.85 per cent of the total allocation. For net lending and other expenses, Tk 70.41 billion (7,041 crore) has been proposed, which is 1.04 per cent of the total allocation.

The proposed budget kept the tax ceiling for individual taxpayers unchanged at Tk 300,000. The finance minister proposed a tax ranging from 7 to 15 per cent to legalise their undisclosed assets.

He told parliament that the government has so far launched 28 stimuli worth Tk 187,679 crore to battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

“Certainly, we shall be able to transform Bangladesh into a hunger and poverty-free society by achieving SDG in 2030, a higher-middle income country by 2031, a knowledge-based, happy and prosperous developed country by 2041 and a secured delta by 2100.” Mustafa Kamal said.