There is no good news for sports in the proposed national budget 2023-24 as the ministry of youth and sports’ proposed allotment for the upcoming fiscal year has been reduced by Tk 3.2454 billion (Tk 324.54 crore) compared to the previous year.
In the last fiscal year, the proposed budget for the sports ministry was Tk 12.89 billion (Tk 1,287,00,00,000). In the revised budget, allotment was raised to Tk 16.3440 billion (Tk 1,634,00,00,000). But in the 2023-24 fiscal year, the allotment has been reduced to Tk 13.0986 billion (Tk 1,309 crore).
In the proposal, the operating budget has been set at Tk 3.80 billion (Tk 382.48 crore), nearly Tk 800 million (Tk 80 crore) more than last year. However, the proposed development budget is Tk 9.27 billion (Tk 927 crore), which is around Tk 4.05 billion (Tk 405 crore).
Despite the reduced proposal, state minister for youth and sports Zahid Ahsan Russel is hopeful that the allocation will rise significantly in the revised budget, “The allotment this year is more than the allotment initially proposed in last year’s budget. Last time, our allocation was increased by almost Tk 3.5 billion (Tk 350 crore). But in comparison to last year’s revised budget, the allocation has gone down. But it won’t be fair to consider the revised budget as the benchmark.”
“Hopefully, in the revised budget we will get our desired allocation. The allocation will be higher from last year,” he added.
However, in some sectors, allocation has increased compared to last year. Last year’s sports development budget of Tk 329.7 million (Tk 32,97,00,000) has been increased to Tk 350 million (TK 35 crore). Last year, government grant for federations for arranging international competitions was Tk 322 million (Tk 32.20 crore), which this year has been raised to Tk 325.1 million (Tk 32.51 crore).
The allocation for stadium renovation has increased from Tk 101 million (Tk 10.10 croere) to Tk 126.5 million (Tk 12.65 crore). The budget for BKSP has also been raised from Tk 800 million (Tk 80 crore) to Tk 850 million (Tk 85 crore.