Parliament passes national budget for FY2017-18

After 55 hours of deliberations, the parliament has passed a Tk 4 trillion budget for the fiscal year starting Saturday.

This is the fourth budget by the Awami League government since it was elected for its second consecutive term. It is also Finance Minister AMA Muhith’s ninth consecutive budget.

The parliamentary session began on Thursday at 10am, led by Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury.

The House then passed a Tk 4.266 trillion budget for fiscal 2017-18.

Muhith unveiled the budget in parliament on Jun 1.

After a month of deliberations, the final budget was passed in the presence of Leader of Parliament Sheikh Hasina and Leader of the Opposition Raushon Ershad.

The budget has allocated Tk 1.59 trillion for development projects, Tk 1.53 trillion of which has been earmarked for the government’s Annual Development Programme or ADP.

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The government has allocated Tk 2.34 trillion for non-development projects, a 21 percent increase from the outgoing year’s budget.

Approximately Tk 538 million will go into paying salaries and expenses for state workers -- a 22 percent increase.

The government plans to raise about Tk 2.88 trillion, or nearly 72 percent of expenses, through taxes.

Approximately Tk 2.48 trillion can be raised through the National Revenue Board (NRB), hopes Muhith.

Though the finance minister has considered this his ‘best budget’ it has faced harsh criticism on a number of fronts, particularly the new VAT and a hike in excise duties on bank accounts.

Members of Muhith’s own party joined the opposition Jatiya Party to criticise those aspects of the budget.

The excise duty on bank accounts was revised and the implementation of the new VAT was postponed for another two years in the finance bill, which passed parliament on Wednesday.