Parliament passes budget

The parliament passed the budget for the next fiscal on Wednesday in absence of the main opposition BNP.UPDATES

Dhaka, June 30 (bdnews24.com) — The parliament passed the budget for the next fiscal on Wednesday in absence of the main opposition BNP.

The process started with ratifying the demand resolution, the first step for the passage.

The parliament has ratified resolution of 53 demands but heard only a few of the around 1,000 cut motions of the demands as one but all the MPs, who were supposed to table those motions, was absent.

Independent MP Fazlul Azim of Noakhali-6 was the only member who proposed his cut motions.

Azim, however, only proposed four out of his 53 proposed motions as the speaker did not allow him to propose more due to "time constraints".

After passage of the demand resolutions, finance minister A M A Muhith tabled the Appropriation Bill, 2010 authorising the allocation of public funds, which completes the process of passing the budget.

Speaker Abdul Hamid then prorogued the parliament session until July 11.

He also called the opposition to join the session.

The parliament sat at around 11am and the budget session started on June 2. The BNP joined the first day of the budget session, but stayed away from the house since.

A total of 204 MPs took part in the discussion, which kicked off on June 15.

According to parliament secretariat sources, MPs discussed the budget for 38 hours and 44 minutes.

The parliament unanimously passed the Finance Bill-2010, which legalises all tax proposals made in the budget, on Tuesday.

The finance minister amended his proposed tax measures almost entirely in line with the recommendations of the prime minister.

He waived the 10 percent tax he had proposed earlier on government's saving certificates.

The bill included the implementation of government's financial proposals and amendments of some laws.

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