Budgetary allocation for Bangladesh Parliament rises 3.87% in 2020-21 fiscal

The Parliament Commission has approved Tk 3.35 billion budget for Parliament to spend on its development and non-development segments for the 2020-21 fiscal year beginning from July 1.

The budget, which is 3.87 percent higher than that of the supplementary budget of the current fiscal, was approved in the 30th meeting of the commission with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair at the Parliament Building on Monday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended it.

The meeting also made other decisions on policies, including creating new posts for the Parliament Secretariat and implementation of projects.

In the allocated budget for Parliament, Tk 3.34 billion was set aside for its management and Tk 8.3 million for its development. In the last financial year, a total of Tk 3.28 billion was approved for these segments, with Tk 3.27 billion going to management and Tk 8.3 billion to development.

However, Tk 53.78 million from the budget allocated for management was unspent. This sum was added and approved as the supplementary budget for FY 2019-2020. With the expenditure in development spent as per the budget, the supplementary budget was set at Tk 320.28 million.

According to these calculations, the main budget for the new fiscal was 3.88 percent more than that of last year, while the supplementary budget was 3.87 percent higher with the extended budget going into the Parliament’s management.

According to a handout on the secretariat's meeting, proposals to raise budget for the management included recommendation to raise the annual salary of employees by 5 percent, appointing new staff, settling the salaries and other payment of VVIP employees and staffers, arranging in-house training for staff of the Parliament Secretariat, ordering the outfits of 692 third and fourth-class staffers, employing cleaners and auto-rickshaw drivers through outsourcing.

The meeting discussed deployment of two double cabin pick-up vans for the police protection of the deputy speaker and the chief whip, inducting one ambulance received from the Health Directorate in the TO&E and creating 11 new posts in different divisions under the Parliament Secretariat.

Also, the commission recommended amendment to  Parliament Secretariat Officer and Employee Recruitment Rules 1994, approved supply of 40-inch LED televisions instead of 21-inch one in the offices of the chairmen of different parliamentary standing committees.

The meeting also approved Tk 3.58 billion as the estimated budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year and Tk 3.83 billion for 2022-23.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal and Law Minister Anisul Huq took part in the meeting while Parliament’s Chief Whip Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury attended the session on special invitation.