Govt posts July budget surplus

Bangladesh reports a budget surplus in the month starting the current fiscal year, finance ministry shows in revenue-collection and spending data, which relieves feelings on bigger annual shortfall.

The official reckonings showed total revenues amounting to Tk 275.36 billion in July, compared to expenditures worth Tk 215.18 billion, during the period under review.

Tax revenue recorded Tk 152.98 billion, non-tax revenue worth Tk 22.38 and the remaining amount comes in foreign grants.

In the first month of the FY 2023, a major portion of the NBR tax came from VAT (49.66 percent). Income-tax contribution was 21.22 percent, import duty 17.26 percent, and supplementary duty 10.98 percent.

However, in July in the last fiscal year the budget had a deficit amounting to Tk 45.72 billion, the data show.

For FY23, the actual overall balance up to July 2022 (excluding grants) had witnessed a positive value, which was 0.15 percent of GDP.

Although this is merely a single month's statistics, but the average exceeded the ministry's previously announced anticipation that the total deficit could hit Tk 2.41 trillion, equivalent to 7.09 percent of the GDP, in the whole 12-month period of the fiscal.

However, the performance under the annual development programme was much poorer than that in the same period a year earlier-evidently for tight-fisted spending in view of a dreaded oncoming 'famine' in the global landscape.

The ADP-execution amount in July was worth Tk 8.7 billion against Tk 16.42 billion in the same period a year before.

The non-development expenditure is also lower at Tk 193.36 billion in July 2022, against over Tk 197.98 billion in July 2021, the data show.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal placed the budget worth Tk 6.78 trillion for the current fiscal year. The budget estimated development expenditures at Tk 2.50 trillion and non-development expenditure at Tk 4.11 trillion.

The government also estimated foreign grants amounting to Tk 32.71 billion which is shown as revenues to feed the budget.

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