Bangladesh parliament approves Tk 7.61tn budget for FY24

Parliament approved the Tk 7.61 trillion spending plan for fiscal 2023-24 in a voice vote on Monday to facilitate the development of a 'Smart Bangladesh'.

It comes a day after the passage of the finance bill in parliament.

The new budget will be effective from Jul 1. Before that, a gazette on the budget will be published, subject to the assent of the president.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal tabled the expansionary budget in parliament on Jun 1.

Typically, the budget is passed on Jun 29-30 every year, but the session concluded earlier this time due to the Eid-ul-Azha holidays.

In the latest budget, the finance minister has set the National Board of Revenue’s tax collection target at Tk 4.30 trillion, a 16 per cent rise from the revised budget.

Development plans once again took centre stage with an allocation of Tk 2.78 trillion, a 15 per cent jump from the revised budget for FY23. Of this amount, Tk 2.63 trillion will go to the Annual Development Programme.

The budget also runs a record fiscal deficit of Tk 2.61 trillion, or 5.2 per cent of total GDP.

The budget set out an ambitious growth target of 7.5 per cent for FY24. Though the government had set the same target for FY23, its most recent estimate suggests that GDP growth for this period will only hit 6.03 per cent.

The government also set an optimistic inflation target of 6 per cent for FY24. However, consumer prices have hovered at 9 percent inflation for 10 months of the outgoing fiscal year.