The Bangladeshi government Thursday unveiled a record 2.51 trillion-taka (about 32.42 billion U.S. dollars) proposed national budget targeting an economic growth of 7.3 percent for the next 2014-15 fiscal year starting in July.
The country's Finance Minister AMA Muhith placed the sixth annual budget of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party government since 2009 before the parliament.
In his budget speech, Muhith said, "The main objective of the proposed budget will be to maintain continuity of existing monetary and fiscal policy strategies being pursued and to ensure macroeconomic stability."
"As you all know, we have undertaken a range of legal, regulatory and structural reforms in the revenue sector. Moreover, additional manpower has been sanctioned to revamp the activities of this sector. Efforts to strengthen revenue collection in the next budget will continue through these ongoing reforms."
The total outlay of the proposed budget for the next fiscal year 2014-15 (July 2014-June 2015) is 2,505.06 billion taka (18.7 percent of GDP), up by about 13 percent over that of the original budget of the outgoing fiscal year 2013-14 (July 2013-June 2014).
According to the proposal, the overall budget deficit will be 675.52 billion taka, which is 5 percent of GDP.
Of this amount, 242.75 billion taka (1.8 percent of GDP) will be financed from external sources and 432.77 billion taka (3.2 percent of GDP) from domestic sources.
Muhith said the total estimated revenue will be 1.83 trillion taka.
On the expenditure side, he said the size of Annual Development Program for the next fiscal year will be 803.15 billion taka with power and communications sectors getting the biggest chunk of money.
"Hopefully, the budget framework proposed in view of the domestic and global perspectives will support growth as well as contain inflation. People will find their aspirations reflected in it," Muhith said.
"The target of growth for the next fiscal year would be 7.3 percent, and in 2021 it would be 10 percent," he said.
The Bangladeshi government's revised growth forecast is currently 6.5 percent for 2013-14 fiscal year.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling AL party welcomed the budget, terming it a pro-people one that will help boost development in the country.
But her arch rival ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rejected the budget, saying it is anti- people, anti-development and anti-investment./. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 78 taka)