House passes largest budget worth Tk6,78,064cr

With the passage of the Appropriation Bill, the Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday passed a budget of a record Tk 6,78,064 crore for 2022-23 fiscal meant for alleviating Covid-19 pandemic and confronting imported inflation thanks to Russia-Ukraine war.

The budget, tilted heavily towards deficit, will take effect on Friday, the first day of the new fiscal year.

Earlier, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the parliament proposed to pass the Appropriation Bill-2022, which was passed unanimously by voice votes.

On Thursday afternoon, Speaker of Jatiya Sangsad, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury presided over the 18th session, namely the Budget Session.

On June 9, the finance minister raised the budget proposal titled 'Overcoming the impact of Covid and returning to the continuity of development', before the House.

After the supplementary budget was passed on June 13, the general discussion on the proposed budget started from June 14. The talks ended on June 29 with a speech by the leader of the House and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. A total of 228 parliamentarians from the treasury bench and opposition parties took part in the 39-hour discussion.

In the presence of a majority of members of the government and the opposition, 664 cuts were proposed against 59 budget demands.

According to the agreement between the government and the opposition whip, it was decided to discuss 4 grant demands.

At the end of the discussion, the demands for approval were passed in the parliament by voice votes. After that, the finance minister proposed to pass the 'Appropriation Bill-2022' to get approval for a maximum expenditure of Tk 8,83,751.81 crore. Later it was passed by voice vote. The highest allocation of the appropriation bill stands at Tk 3,65,177.67 crore for the finance division while the lowest is Tk 31.45 crore for the President's Office.

At the time, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Deputy Leader of the Opposition GM Quader and members of the ruling and opposition parties clapped at the table and welcomed the journey of implementing the largest budget in history. After the budget was passed, there was no post-budget dinner as post-budget dinner expenses will go to a relief fund for people affected by devastating flash floods in Sylhet and Sunamganj.

Incidentally, the appropriation bill is basically the gross budget. The government has an obligation to allocate funds in the budget to various donor agencies and other sectors. But this money is never spent, which is calculated by adjusting the budget with income and expenditure. Due to this obligation, an additional allocation of Tk 2,05,686 crore has been made in this year's budget, which will not be spent. The budget raised by the finance minister on June 9, worth Tk 6,78,064 crore, will be spent. That is the net budget for the next financial year. The amount is Tk 74, 383 crore more than the outgoing financial year’s budget.

In the budget of the new financial year, the total revenue target has been set at Tk 4,33,00 crore, which is Tk 44,000 crore more than the outgoing financial year’s one. As always, the NBR's target for the main revenue sector is Tk 370,000 crore, which is Tk 40,000 crore more than the outgoing financial year’s target. Non-NBR revenue has been estimated at Tk 18,000 crore and non-revenue income has been estimated at Tk 45,000 crore.

The budget has included operating or recurring expenditure of Tk 3,73,242 crore. Various development expenditures have been estimated at Tk 2,59,617 crore. Of this, the Annual Development Program (ADP) comprises Tk 2, 46,066 crore.

In the proposed fiscal year of 2022-23, the budget deficit has been estimated at Tk 2,45,064 crore, which is 5.5 percent of GDP. As a result, the next budget deficit will be Tk 30,373 crore more than the expiring financial year’s deficit. A total of Tk 1,12,458 crore will be available from foreign sources (including grants) to finance the budget.

Meanwhile, the government is set to borrow Tk 1,46, 335 crore from internal sources. Of this, it has been proposed to derive Tk 1,06,334 crore from the banking sector. The target for non-bank loans is Tk 40,001 crore and borrowing from savings certificates may aggregate Tk 35,000 crore, respectively.

The size of GDP for the new financial year has been estimated at Tk 44, 49,959 crore. In the budget of the last financial year, the size of GDP was worth Tk 36, 76, 462 crore.