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Kamal to place Tk 7.61 lakh crore budget for FY24 on June 1


By BSS
Published : 31 May 2023 01:52 AM

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal will place a national budget of over Taka 7.61 lakh crore for the next fiscal year (FY24) at the Jatiya Sangsad on June 1 (Thursday) with a major focus on containing inflation, generating jobs, efforts towards building a ‘Smart Bangladesh’ and addressing the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR).

The possible budget size of Taka 7,61,785 crore would mainly aim at taming inflation alongside the higher GDP growth trajectory, said a Finance Ministry official.

The official also said that the budget would not be ambitious one nor expansionary.

The Finance Minister is set to deliver his budget speech with a possible title “Unnayner Derdoshok: Smart Bangladesher Abhimukhe.”

The budget speech will feature 11 chapters while the Finance Minister is likely to begin and end his budget speech citing verses of the Holy Quran.

AHM Mustafa Kamal will be placing the last budget of the present Awami League government's five-year term on June 1 at 3:00 pm at the Jatiya Sangsad at a time when people are finding it a bit hard to cope with the price hike of commodities owing to the global inflationary pressure following the onslaught of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Finance ministry officials said Kamal would present his vision on how to make a ‘Smart Bangladesh’ in his upcoming budget speech. The speech will cover building a smart country to cope with the 4iR.

The government this time is eying to attain a growth rate of 7.5 percent in the next fiscal year (FY24) while to contain the inflation rate around 6.5 percent. The total investment target in the next year will be 33.8 percent of the GDP.

The provisional estimate of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) shows that the GDP has grown by 6.03 percent in the outgoing fiscal year (FY23) and the inflation rate was 8.4 percent till April.

The budget speech has been prepared with emphasis on ensuring people’s employment through business expansion. The government will take initiatives to increase the investment of state-owned enterprises to create new jobs. 

In his budget speech, the finance minister will reassure the countrymen about improving the country and transforming it into a smart one with visions to make smart roads to smart intellectuals.

Particularly, focus will be on the ICT sector, power sector, and making smart citizens.

The next budget will be 12.34 percent bigger than the current one.

It will be 15.21 percent of the projected GDP of Taka 50,06,682 crore, compared to 15.27 percent in the current fiscal year. This shows that the next budget is not ambitious.

Officials said the government targets a possible revenue collection of Taka 5 lakh crore, around Tk 67,000 crore more than that in FY23.