New national budget passed

Parliament on Tuesday passed the Tk678,064 crore national budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year, scheduled to go into effect from July 1.

The theme of the budget is 'Return to the Path of Development Leaving the COVID-19 Behind' and to overcome the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war on the economy.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal moved the Appropriations Bill, 2022 seeking a budgetary allocation of Tk 883751,81,97,000 crore which was passed by voice vote.

Earlier on Wednesday, the House passed the Finance Bill 2022 with some changes.

Following the proposal mooted in the House by the Finance Ministry for the parliamentary approval of appropriation of fund for meeting necessary development and non-development expenditures of the government, the ministers concerned placed justifications for the expenditures by their respective ministries through 59 demands for grant.

Earlier, the House rejected by voice vote a total of 664 cut-motions that stood in the name of opposition members on 59 demands for grants for different ministries.

A total of thirteen MPs from Jatiya Party, BNP, Gono Forum and Independent submitted their cut-motions on the budget.

They are Kazi Firoze Rashid, Rustam Ali Farazi, Mujibul Huq, Fakhrul Imam, Pir Fazlur Rahman, Shamim Haider Patwari, Begum Rawshan Ara Mannan, Ponir Uddin Ahmed, Harun Ur Rashid, Mosharrof Hossain, Mokabbir Khan, Rumeen Farhana and Rezaul Karim Bablu.

They were, however, allowed to participate in the discussion on Election Commission Secretariat, Public Security Division, Health Services Division and Secondary and Higher Education Division.

Later, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury applied guillotine to quicken the process of passing the demands for grants for different ministries.

Opposition and independent MPs were present at the House when the Appropriation Bill was passed in Parliament and they did not object to the passage of the bill.

The finance minister on June 9 placed a Tk 678,064 crore-national budget for FY 2022-23 beginning July 1.

The budget kept the GDP growth target at 7.5 per cent and the GDP size estimated at Tk44.50 lakh crore.

The revenue target is set at Tk4.33 lakh crore, while the budget deficit is Tk2.42 lakh crore or 5.4 per cent of GDP. The average inflation in the budget was kept at 5.6 per cent.