The government has announced the national budget for the next fiscal, aiming to boost investment, employment and the rural economy.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal came up with this statement at a post-budget press conference for the 2021-2022 fiscal on Friday.
This year's budget has given top priority to the marginalized people of the country and aims at recovering the economy from the shock of Covid-19 pandemic, he said.
Regarding employment, the Finance Minister said, “The budget is for everyone. The whole budget is business-friendly. Entrepreneurs will go into production with opportunities.”
Many opportunities will be given to the traders, he said, adding that, if traders are given a chance, they will go into production and employment will be created.
He mentioned he has proposed to reduce corporate tax in the next budget to create a ‘Win-Win situation’ between the business people and the government.
If the country’s business people expanded their business, it would create huge employment, he added.
Although it has been proposed to reduce the tax rate in the proposed budget for the financial year 2021-22, our revenue collection will increase, he expected.
If it is implemented, revenue collection will increase, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
Responding to a question on tax exemptions in the budget, he said, "We aim to simplify the law. We sincerely believe that if we can simplify the law, if we can involve tax payers in this work, then the revenue generation will increase a lot.”
Many countries of the world tried to increase revenue generation, he said adding that, even the United States once had a 75 percent tax rate, which is no longer the case.
Everyone tried to figure out whether to pay more taxes, he mentioned.
“We think if we gradually reduce the rate of revenue, our collection will increase. The tax we cut, we believe ‘We Will Be Winners’. The tax rate has been reduced, hopefully our revenue collection will increase further,” he said.
The Finance Minister said, “Our country is doing well in a short time and going forward overall.”
Bangladesh is ahead of other countries including India, he said adding that, “It is time to lend. We will not borrow, we will lend.”
Kamal said the growth rate of the GDP for the fiscal year 2021-22 has been projected at 7.2 percent in the budget: it was 8.2 percent in the previous budget.
“The current situation will not last long. If the country is normal, Bangladesh's economy will turn around again. We will show growth. We have done what we said before and we will do it again,” he added.
When the whole world is going down in terms of economic indicators, we are going up, he mentioned.
The country’s GDP growth and per capita income are increasing day by day, he said.
However, the government has unveiled Tk 603,681 crore national budget for the next fiscal year, laying special emphasis on recovery of the economy which has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Finance Minister placed the annual outlay of the government expenditure for fiscal year 2021-22 in the national parliament on Thursday – his third budget in a row.
The proposed budget amounting to Tk 603,681 crore (6,036.81 billion), the biggest-ever in the country’s history, is about 6.34 percent higher than the current FY’s original outlay and about 12 percent than the revised outlay.
For the current FY, the original budget was Tk 568,000 crore and revised outlay Tk 538,983 crore.
The budget for the next FY sees a record expenditure-revenue deficit of Tk 214,681 crore or 35.56 percent while the deficit in percentage of GDP stands at 6.2.
The finance minister revealed the plan to cover the deficit by borrowing from domestic and foreign sources -- Tk 97,738 crore from foreign sources and Tk 113, 453 crore from domestic sources. The deficit in percentage of GDP was 6 in the current FY’s original outlay and 5.5 in FY 2019-20.
The budget has projected a 7.2 percent GDP growth and 5.3 percent inflation. In FY21, the government set a GDP growth target of 8.2 percent which was later revised to 6.1 percent amid the coronavirus pandemic.
