Dhaka: Finance Minister AMA Muhith placed Tk 400,266 crore budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year in Parliament on Thursday.

In the proposed budget, the target of gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been set at 7.4 per cent.

A cabinet division meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was held on Thursday at the cabinet room of National Parliament for approving the fiscal bill.

Finance minister AMA Muhith and other ministers were present in the meeting. After the cabinet passed the bill, President Abdul Hamid signed the bill and sent it to the parliament secretariat for presenting before the house.

The finance minister started budget speech at about 1:30pm with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

This is the country’s 46^th national budget while the 18^th budget of the Awami League government and the 11^th for Muhith.

The revenue collection target for the next fiscal year has been set at Tk 2,87,991 crore, which is 13.0% of GDP, of which NBR tax revenue is Tk 2,48,190 crore. Revenue from Non-NBR sources has been estimated at Tk 8,622 crore. In addition, Tk 31,179 crore will be collected as Non-Tax Revenue.

Annual Development Programme (ADP)
Tk 153,331 crore has been allocated to the Annual Development Programme (ADP), which is 6.9% of total GDP, and Tk 42,631crore more than the current fiscal year.

Budget deficit

The budget deficit for the next fiscal year is Tk 1,12,275 crore, which is 5% of total GDP. Tk 51,924 or 2.3% of the budget will be drawn from the foreign sources, and Tk 60,352 or 2.7% will be collected from non-bank borrowing. Bank borrowing is Tk 28.203 crore, which is 1.3% of GDP.

In the current fiscal year’s budget, primarily it was mentioned that Tk 19, 61,017crore would be collected from external sources. However, in the revised budget plan it has been reduced to Tk 19, 56,055crore.

Inflation target

Inflation rate for the next fiscal year has been set at 5.5%. Currently, the inflation rate, which is falling, is 5.4% until April 2017.