Bangladesh unveils Tk 4.65 trillion budget for FY19

Bangladesh has unveiled a Tk 4.65 trillion budget for fiscal 2018-19.

The figure is an increase of 25 percent from the revised budget and more than 16 percent higher than the original budget of the outgoing fiscal year.

The budget has largely focused on infrastructure, along with a major push to scale up social safety net, and other nationally important projects.

 

Finance Minister AMA Muhith, 85, is set to present the 103-page budget in parliament on Thursday.

The revenue target is more than 30 percent higher than the revised collection target for the outgoing fiscal year and accounted for around 64 percent of the proposed budget.

According to the revenue earnings outline, the Value Added Tax or VAT is the biggest contributor with Tk 1.1 trillion, followed by income tax with over Tk 1 trillion and customs Tk 858 billion.

 

The budget deficit will be kept at 4.9 percent of the GDP.

On the expenditure side of the budget, the government has already approved the Tk 1.73 trillion Annual Development Programme or ADP, which is nearly 17 percent higher than the revised ADP of the outgoing fiscal.

In the proposed budget, the GDP growth is projected at 7.8 percent for FY19. Muhith hopes to keep the inflation target below 5.4 percent in the new fiscal year.