Parliament passes budget for FY 2014-15

Parliament on Sunday passed the Tk 250,506 crore national budget for FY 2014-‘15, the first budget of the current AL government that came to power following the January-5 national election.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith moved the Appropriations Bill, 2014 seeking a budgetary allocation of Tk 382340, 01, 21,000 which was passed by voice vote.
Following the proposal mooted in the House by the Finance Ministry for parliamentary approval of appropriation of fund for meeting necessary development and non-development expenditures of the government, the ministers concerned placed justifications for the expenditures by their respective ministries, through 56 demands for grant.
Earlier, parliament rejected by voice vote a total of only 249 cut-motions that stood in the name of opposition and independent members on 56 demands for grants for different ministries.
A total of six MPs from Jatiya Party and independent submitted their cut-motions on the budget.
They were allowed to participate in the discussion on Public Administration Ministry, Foreign Ministry, Law Ministry, Health Ministry, Communications Ministry, Finance Ministry and Home Ministry.
Later, Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury applied guillotine to quicken the process of passing the demands for grants for different ministries without giving the lunch break.
Opposition and independent MPs were present at the house when the Appropriation Bill was passed in parliament and they did not raise any voice against passing of the bill.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith on June 5 placed a Tk 250,506 crore proposed national budget for the next fiscal year (2014-15) in parliament eying a 7.3 percent GDP growth rate.
The first budget of the present government also looks to contain the average inflation rate at 7 percent. The proposed budget is also 18.7 percent of the GDP.
The budget also sets an overall revenue collection target of Tk 1,82, 954 crore, of which NBR tax revenue is Tk 149, 720 crore.
The revenue collection target from the non-NBR sources has been estimated at Tk. 5,572 crore. Besides, Tk 27,662 crore will be collected as non-tax revenue (NTR).
The allocation for non-development expenditure has been estimated at Tk 154,241 crore.
The expenditure for ADP has been estimated at Tk 80,315 crore.
The overall budget deficit will be Tk 67,552 crore which is 5 percent of GDP. Of the amount, Tk. 18, 069 crore will be financed from external sources while Tk. 43, 277 crore from domestic sources.
Of the domestic financing, Tk 31,221 crore will come from the banking system and Tk. 12,056 crore from savings certificates and other non-banking sources.
Earlier on Saturday, the House passed the Finance Bill-2014, with some changes as proposed by the Finance Minister to the original one that was placed before the House at the time of the presentation of the budget for fiscal 2014-15 on June 5 last.
With the passage of both the Appropriation Bill-2014 and the Finance Bill-2014, the national budget of Tk 250, 506 crore for fiscal 2014-15 got the approval of the JS on the day, one day before the current financial year that will conclude on Monday.