The Finance Ministry has proposed a block allocation worth Tk 10,000 crore (100 billion) to meet emergency requirements to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said, “Like previous year’s budget, we also make commitment this year that the government will take all necessary measures to halt the spread of pandemic and control the deadly virus. I would like to propose to allocate Tk 10,000 crore in the fiscal year to meet the emergency requirements to respond the pandemic.”
The minister came up with the assertion during his budget speech on Thursday.
He said that the government made a large allocation for the implementation of special activities under the Health Services Division to address the Covid-19 pandemic.
“However, although a year has passed since its first outbreak, the pandemic is still ravaging the world,” the minister said.
Besides, Tk 100 crore will be allocated in the next financial year for the advancement of research in the areas of health, education of science and technology, he said.
Our first case of Ciovid-19 was identified on March 8 last year. But the virus started spreading in various regions of the world, including China, Europe, USA and other countries in January, 2020 which played a negative role in our economy as export and import slowed down, he added.
The Finance Minister said the first impact on our economy came in the form of cancellation and postponement of export orders of readymade garments that risked jobs of millions of workers in that sector.
“We acted upon very promptly and created an emergency fund of Tk. 5,000 crore on March 31, 2020 to provide salary support to the workers of the export-oriented industries,” he mentioned.
We also had to implement the strict social distancing measures during late March to mid-May last year to contain the spread of the virus which resulted in temporary closure of many businesses and as a result, the economy slowed down, he said.
In April 2020, the government declared four economic recovery packages worth Tk 67,750 crore to combat the slowdown, the minister said.
In last one year, we have gradually expanded the size and scope of the packages and brought newer affected sectors and affected population within the government support mechanism, he further said.
So far, we have introduced 23 recovery packages with a combined value of Tk. 128,441 crore which is approximately 4.2 percent of GDP, he mentioned.
However, this year, the proposed budget size is TK 603,681 crore. Of this, Tk 32,731 crore has been proposed for the health sector.
