Parliament passes budget for FY 2016-2017

Parliament: The Parliament on Thursday passed the national budget for fiscal year 2016-2017 (FY) to further augment the ongoing pace of development and achieve a higher growth for transforming Bangladesh into a developed nation by 2041.

Bangladesh is now on the wheels of achieving the middle income status by 2021 as enshrined in the Vision-2021 of the present government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

On June 2, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith placed the national budget of Taka 3 lakh 40 thousand 605 crore in the House, setting a target for 7.2 percent growth over the year beginning on July 1, 2016.  

With adoption of the Appropriation Bill-2016 by voice votes, concerned ministers placed 55 demands while the main opposition party and independent lawmakers brought 420 cut motions to clear the legal basis. But the demands were approved in the House by voice votes.  

Out of the total, some six demands were discussed by the opposition bench and independent lawmakers. Later the cut motions were rejected by voice votes. The lawmakers also passed the national budget by voice votes through adoption of the appropriation bill-2016 in the House.

The finance minister moved the appropriation bill seeking budgetary allocations for meeting development and non-development expenditures of various ministries and the government.  

The house passed the Finance Bill-2016 yesterday in an amended form with some changes to the tax-duty proposals. With the adoption of the Finance Bill-2016 and the Appropriation Bill-2016 today, the process of the JS passing the national budget for FY 2016-2017 has been completed.

The opposition and independent lawmakers proposed a total 420 cut motions, but they only spoke on the motions for six demands for grants, which were rejected by voice votes.

Ministers in charge of the concerned ministries placed their proposals for expenditures through 56 demands for grants, which were passed by voice votes.

Leader of the House and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Leader of the

Opposition in Parliament Begum Rawshan Ershad, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, ministers, 237 treasury, opposition benches and independent members took part in the discussion for 59 hours and 14 minutes on the budget for FY 2016-17.

Five opposition and four treasury bench members also discussed for 1 hour and 36 minutes on the supplementary budget for FY 2015-16 in 20 working days from June 6.

In the budget for the FY 2016-17, the GDP growth target has been set at 7.2 percent and the inflation rate at 5.8 percent. Besides, the revenue receipt has been estimated at Taka 2 lakh 42 thousand 752 crore, of which, Taka 2 lakh 3 thousand 152 crore will come from NBR while Taka 7 thousand 250 crore from non-NBR sources. In addition, Taka 32 thousand 350 crore will be collected as Non Tax Revenue (NTR).

The allocation for development, non-development and other expenditure has been estimated at Taka 3 lakh 40 thousand 605 crore in the national budget for 2016-17. Expenditure for Annual Development Plan (ADP) has been estimated at Taka 1 lakh 10 thousand 700 crore in the budget, which is 5.6 percent of the GDP.  

The overall budget deficit has been estimated at Taka 97 thousand 853 crore excluding grants, which is 5 percent of the GDP. Of the amount, Taka 36 thousand 305 crore will come from the external sources, which is 1.9 percent of the GDP and Taka 61 thousand 548 crore from the domestic sources, which is 3.1 percent of the GDP.  

Of the domestic financing, Taka 38 thousand 938 crore will come from the banking system, which is 2 percent of the GDP and Taka 22 thousand 610 crore from savings certificate and other non-banking sources.

In his budget speech, Muhith presented his strategies and plans on implementation of the budget for the FY 2016-2017.