Parliament session for 2024-25 budget begins

The third session of the 12th parliament has begun, and this session is set to pass, with subtractions and additions, the national budget prepared by Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Besides his first national expenditure plan, Mahmood Ali will also present the supplementary budget for the current fiscal year in this session.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury presided over the session that began at 5pm on Wednesday.

She welcomed everyone to the budget session and said that Ali will present the proposed budget at 3pm on Thursday.

“Members of the government and opposition parties will discuss the budget. The session will be lively and effective with everyone's participation,” she said.

At the beginning of the session, the speaker nominated the members of the presidium. They are: AB Tajul Islam, Md Shahab Uddin, Shahriar Alam, Salma Islam and Farida Yasmin.

In the absence of the speaker and the deputy speaker, they will preside over the session on the basis of precedence.

A condolence motion was later adopted in parliament. However, Jhenaidah-4 MP Anwarul Azim Anar's name was not in the condolence motion.

He was 'murdered' in Kolkata recently but his body was not found. As a result, the death certificate was not issued.

His parliamentary seat was also not declared vacant.

Before the start of the session, the business advisory committee meeting decided on the overall programme, including the duration of the current session, and discussion on the budget.

This is the second meeting of the committee of the current parliament. The chairman of the committee is the speaker herself.

Leader of the House Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Leader of the Opposition GM Quader also participated in the meeting chaired by Shirin and joined by several ruling, opposition and independent MPs.

Finance Minister Ali attended the meeting at the speaker’s request.

In the meeting, the time allocation and the duration of the session were discussed.

According to the decisions, parliament will not sit on Fridays, Saturdays and public holidays. However, the session will continue on Jun 22 and Jun 29 Saturdays.

The session will be held from 11am to 1pm and from 7pm to 10pm every day.

On the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, the session will be adjourned on Jun 13 and will resume on Jun 19.

It was also decided in the meeting that the speaker will decide the duration of the budget session considering the volume of activities of the parliament. She is empowered to make any changes regarding session time and working day if necessary.

A total of 1,972 questions were received in the session, including 82 for the prime minister and 1,890 for other members of her cabinet.