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Budget FY23: Tk5,000 crore earmarked to combat pandemic
With an apprehension that Covid-19 can spread further anytime, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal proposed Tk 5,000 crore as block allocation in the next fiscal year to implement the emergency measures to combat the pandemic.
While presenting the proposed budget for the FY2022-2023 fiscal year, the finance minister said the government is laying emphasis on how to combat such a complex pandemic situation as the country experienced during Covid-19.
“To this end, the government is planning to develop the capacity to respond and control such pandemic quickly, conduct research in this sector and develop the institutional capacity, technical knowledge and skilled manpower to up-scale the overall capacity,” he said.
Read: Budget FY23: Education allocation to rise by less than 2 pc of GDP
In the last two fiscal years, Kamal said a sufficient budget has been allocated to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to implement the important activities to combat COVID-19 and for the development of the health sector.
To meet any emergency expenditure, he said they earmarked Tk. 10 thousand crores as block allocation in the outgoing fiscal year.
“Although the infection of COVID-19 coronavirus has reduced drastically, the fear of its reappearance still persists as the outbreak of COVID-19 is still evident in many countries. Bearing in mind the COVID-19 related health hazards, we are also proposing a block allocation of Tk 5 thousand crores for the coming fiscal year,” the minister said.
He said some of the projects taken in the last fiscal year to combat COVID-19 will continue in the next fiscal year.
Read: Budget FY23: Kamal says e-commerce business boomed, but riddled with scams
Kamal said COVID-19 Emergency Response and Pandemic Preparedness’ project is being implemented with support from the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the ‘COVID-19 Response Emergency Assistance’ project is being implemented with the help of the Asian Development Bank.
“The Prime Minister has given the directives to establish a high-quality institute in the country for manufacturing all types of vaccines including that for coronavirus. Accordingly, the 100 percent state-owned Essential Drugs Company has taken steps to set up a state-of-the-art vaccine manufacturing plant at Gopalganj, with financial and technical assistance from the Asian Development Bank,” he mentioned.
The minister said they will eventually transform this plant into an international standard vaccine research and production center so that the country does not rely on overseas sources for vaccines.
Budget FY23: Parliament back to business as usual
With ebbing Covid-19 pandemic under control the Parliament on Thursday got back its old atmosphere when the finance minister presented his budget proposals for FY2022-23.
Though the Covid health protocols were still in force the members looked relaxed as they listened and watched the audio-visual presentation of the national budget.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presented the budget for the fiscal year 2022-23 in Parliament in the afternoon. This is the 51st budget of Bangladesh and the fourth budget of him.
Kamal placed a proposed budget of Tk 678,064 crore for the new financial year with the challenge of reversing the lost pace of development due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The proposed expenditure for the new fiscal year is 14.24 per cent higher than the revised budget of the outgoing fiscal year (Tk 5,93,500 crore). That amount of money is equal to 15.23 per cent of the total GDP of Bangladesh.
The size of the budget given by Kamal in the outgoing fiscal year was 12 per cent more than the revised budget in the fiscal year 2020-21 and was equal to 16.4 per cent of GDP.
Earlier, after approval of the budget at a special Cabinet meeting at the parliament building, President Abdul Hamid signed it for authentication.
Also read:Budget FY23: Prices to go up and down
He arrived at the Parliament House from Bangabhaban.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Finance Minister Mustafa Kamal walked together from the Prime Minister's Office at the Parliament building to the House. The finance minister was carrying a maroon coloured briefcase.
The Russia-Ukraine war has destabilized world markets in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic.
The rising US dollar is putting pressure on the economy as food and fuel prices continue to rise.
The World Bank warns that many countries could fall into recession as inflation rises.
The finance minister has prepared this year's budget plan to take the country back to the pre-pandemic development trend despite various pressures.
Usually the day of presentation of the budget wears a festive mood throughout the parliament building.
But the picture of the last two years was different.
The entrance to the parliament building area was restricted.
And in the main building a small number of officers and employees performed their duties.
Even in the session, the mood of that festival was not seen for two years. There were strict warnings everywhere. Public gatherings were controlled to avoid infection.
It has been a different picture this time. Nearly all the seats in the House were occupied by lawmakers unlike last year’s turnout of about 160 members in Parliament.
However, this time the number of MPs in the session room was much higher than the last two times.
For the last two years, the members of the Legislative Assembly were listed and placed in the Parliament.
This time all the MPs who got negative certificates in the Coronavirus test were in the House. There were 260 legislators in the parliament chamber.
The MPs, however, were all wearing masks. Sanitizers were kept at all the entrances including the MP lobby starting from the entrance to the parliament building.
Everyone entering the Parliament building has to take a temperature test for fever.
President Hamid sat in the gallery in his designated place and watched the budget presentation. At the beginning of the session, the speaker informed the Parliament about the presence of the president.
The 'Covid Negative' certificate is mandatory for entry into the budget session which started on June 5.
Also read: Budget FY23: Laundered money to be legalized by 7-15 pc tax
During the last two years of the budget session, journalists were not allowed to enter the session hall. Last year, permission was granted to enter the parliament building only. This time there is no such restriction.
The finance minister took 48 minutes to deliver his budget speech in 2020. Last year, the budget was presented for more than an hour, but he read it for 15 minutes only. The rest of the time his budget proposal was presented in PowerPoint and audio-visual presentations.
This time too he presented the budget in audio-visual presentation with the welcome speech with the permission of the speaker.
At the beginning, the finance minister spoke for about five minutes.
At the end he stood and talked for about two minutes. In all, he spoke for only seven minutes in a budget presentation of 2 hours and 10 minutes.
The finance minister stood up and prepared to present the budget. Later the speaker said he can sit and read if he wants. Mustafa Kamal started by reciting verses from the Qur'an.
After the presentation of the budget, the finance minister raised the Finance Bill-2022 in the Parliament. The speaker then adjourned the House till 12 noon on June 12.
As in the last two years, no guests were invited to witness the budget presentation.
Earlier, diplomats and important people of the state would be present during the presentation of the budget.
Kamal arrived at the parliament building with a maroon briefcase at 11:30 am to complete all the formalities before presenting the budget.
According to the decision of the Working Advisory Committee of the Parliament, after the presentation of the budget, there will be a general discussion on the supplementary budget for the financial year 2021-22.
The supplementary budget will be passed on June 13. After that, the members of parliament will discuss the budget of the new financial year.
The finance bill for the new fiscal year will be passed on June 29. The budget will be passed on June 30 and it will be effective on the first day of July.
Although the budget session has been short for the last two years, this time Parliament will sit on all days except Friday and Saturday. Last year, the Parliament session lasted 12 working days. The previous year saw the shortest session in history with nine working days.
Every year, budget documents are distributed to the media personnel from the public relations branch on the seventh floor of the parliament building.
Last year, budget documents were distributed in the lower tunnel in the South Plaza of Parliament. This year, like in 2020, the documents were given from the media center outside the parliament building.
The finance minister will answer various questions at a customary post-budget press conference at Osmani Auditorium at 3 pm on Friday.
Budget FY23: Women, children get higher allocation
Women empowerment and child development sector will receive an allocation of Tk 4,290 crore, for fiscal year 2022-2023 which was Tk 4,190 crore in outgoing fiscal year 2021-2022.
Proposing the allocation, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said they have given importance to five areas in the forthcoming budget to implement the strategic objectives of the government for women’s empowerment and child welfare.
Also read:Budget FY23: Laundered money to be legalized by 7-15 pc tax
These include food assistance for vulnerable mothers (VGD) programmes, mother and child benefit programmes on life-cycle basis, child development centres and adolescent empowerment programmes, technical, vocational, income-generating and productive training for women and prevention of violence against women.
Regarding women empowerment, he said they will give importance to the skill development of young women, especially in professional and technical fields.
“We will consider on a priority basis activities such as adopting effective and robust institutional strategies for gender equality and women empowerment, allocating adequate funds and manpower to bring the gender issue into the mainstream and increasing skilled manpower in technology.”
“In continuation of the 7th Five Year Plan, we are implementing various activities for establishing a gender inclusive society and empowering women following the strategies worked out in the 8th Five Year Plan,” he said.
Besides, micro-credit activities are being carried out to improve the socio-economic condition of rural poor and helpless women for poverty alleviation and affording opportunities for self-employment. “Loan disbursement is going on in 488 upazilas of 64 districts on a revolving basis with the allotted funds,” said Kamal.
In child development, they are also giving importance in the forthcoming budget on providing essential healthcare, ensuring availability of food and nutrition, ensure access to education, training and development for the children.
Necessary steps will be taken to impart healthcare knowledge among adolescents. “We are taking into account the nutrition-sensitive approach and the priority of poor families including children in social security programmes,” he added.
Budget FY23: Education allocation to rise by less than 2 pc of GDP
The Education and Technology sector get 5 per cent higher allocation in the proposed national budget for 2022-23 fiscal year, placed by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in Parliament on Thursday.
The allocation was increased to Tk 99,978 crore from Tk 94,878 crore in the budget for 2021-22 fiscal year. The allocation is 14.7 per cent of the total proposed budget.
However, the allocation for only education except technology is Tk 81,449 crore in the 2022-23 fiscal year increasing from Tk 71,974 crore in the 2021-22 fiscal year. The allocation against education still remains less than 2 percent of the country’s GDP.
Read: Budget FY23: Kamal says e-commerce business boomed, but riddled with scams
In the proposed budget, Tk 31,761 crore was allocated against the Primary and Mass Education Ministry, while Tk 39,961 crore against the Secondary and Higher Education Division, Tk 9,727 against Technical and Madrasa Division, Tk 16,613 crore against the Science and Technology Ministry and Tk 1,916 crore against the ICT Division.
In the budget speech, the finance minister said the government is relentlessly working to build Sonar Bangla as envisaged by the Father of the Nation by giving the highest importance to the education sector and has adopted education as one of the main strategies for development.
He said the government has taken special initiatives in the education sector to compensate the loss during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read: Budget FY23: Kamal sees rising inflation as a major challenge
“Our education programme was disrupted since the first week of March 2020 due to the spread of coronavirus infection. However, the government took various steps to continue the academic schedule by keeping the education activities free from the negative effects of the pandemic,” he said.
Budget FY23: Insignificant boost for health sector, gets 5.4 pc allocation
Though he said strengthening the health sector is the government’s top priority, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has increased allocation just a little for the country’s ailing health sector in the National Budget for 2022-2023 fiscal year.
The minister on Thursday proposed an allocation of Tk36,863 crore for health and family welfare sector, up by only Tk4,132 crore from last year’s allocation.
The allocation was Tk. 32,731 crore in the outgoing fiscal year 2021-2022.
With the new allocation, the health sector received 5.4 per cent of the total budget which was 5.2 percent in the last year’s budget.
“The allocation is meant for the overall development of the sector,” the minister said.
He said Bangladesh is continuously putting efforts to protect lives and recover the economy by revamping the health sector.
Considering the impact of the COVID-19 on public health, Kamal said the COVID protocol is still being strictly observed, precautionary measures are being taken, plans are being formulated and adequate budget is being allocated to overcome the weakness of the health sector.
“Among the six priority sectors for development mentioned in the 8th Five Year Plan, the most significant are - ‘Rapid Recovery from COVID-19 to Restore Human Health, Confidence, Employment, Income and Economic Activities’. By giving the highest priority to this agenda, the government is trying to boost up the confidence level of the people by strengthening the public health system, creating job opportunities by keeping economic activities normal,” he observed.
The minister said the government has given priority to the health, nutrition and population sector after a successful recovery from the pandemic so that every citizen gets quality health service which helps build a healthy and energetic population.
He said the government has started a screening system including the formulation of a guideline for medication and control of non-infectious diseases like high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes and kidney-related diseases.
“We are at the point of eradication of diseases like Filaria and Visceral Leishmaniasis. The government has set up a target to make Bangladesh free from Malaria by 2030. The government is also working relentlessly to control the diseases carried by Aedes mosquitoes especially Dengue and Chikungunya through a programme since January 2017,” Kamal said.
He said the government is continuously working for autism and autistic children. “In the meantime, 1.33 lakh autistic children have been given treatment. Child Development Centre has been established in 16 Medical College Hospitals including at Dhaka Shishu Hospital and it has also been planned to do so in 15 more Medical College Hospitals and 9 District Hospitals.”
The minister said they have taken up various priority-based activities for the development of mother and child health under the 4th sector programme.
Budget FY23: Kamal says e-commerce business boomed, but riddled with scams
Finance Minister AHM Musatafa Kamal has admitted that although e-commerce business boomed during the pandemic, it was riddled with scams as well.
In his budget speech in Parliament on Thursday he, however, said the government has taken up a project titled ‘My e-commerce, My own business’ to support the growth of e-commerce in Bangladesh and to encourage new start-ups, which will create new job opportunities.
He said the objective of this project is to harness skills of new entrepreneurs and to develop small and medium enterprises in this sector in the rural areas of Bangladesh.
Kamal mentioned that the government drafted the National Digital Commerce Policy in 2018.
The government has recently introduced digital commerce business ID (DBID), which is issued by the Registrar of Joint Stock of Companies (RJSC) to e-commerce entities, to restore public confidence on e-commerce sites and also to protect consumer interests, he said.
Budget FY23: Laptop, luxury motor vehicles to get costlier
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has proposed to impose 15 per cent value added tax (VAT) on imports of laptops imports to promote domestic computer manufacturers.
“Laptop computer imports are subject to VAT exemption. As a result, domestic computer manufacturers are facing uneven competition,” he said, adding that the total tax incidence of the product will now be 31 per cent.
To promote “Made in Bangladesh” branding worldwide and to protect the investment of domestic manufacturing industries, he also proposed to withdraw the concessions on import of printers and toner cartridges.
This will help local manufacturers to reach the target of exporting digital devices, he said while proposing budget for the next fiscal year 2022-23 in the Parliament.
For the protection of domestic computer, laptop and ICT product manufacturers, the finance minister proposed to expand the concession facility for import of raw materials for computer accessories and ICT industry.
He also proposed to include a few more raw materials which are used in the production of computer and computer equipment in the existing SRO for Hi-Tech Park.
In order to save foreign currency, discourage and control import of luxury goods and to rebuild the post-COVID economy, it is recommended to increase the total tax incidence by imposing supplementary duty on high-end luxury motor vehicles and jeeps along with chandeliers and light fittings at the import stage, he said.
Budget FY 23: Mobile phone sets to get costlier
People will have to pay more for buying mobile handsets as Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has proposed withdrawing a 5 per cent VAT exemption of mobile phone sets.
Mustafa Kamal proposed the VAT exemption while presenting the Tk 678,064 crore national budget for the financial year 2022-2023 at parliament on Thursday.
“I propose to withdraw the existing 5 per cent VAT exemption at the trading stage of mobile phone sets,” he said.
Also Read: Finance Minister starts unveiling Tk 678,064 cr national budget
Budget FY23: Agro-machineries get heavy subsidy
Finance Minister AHM Mustaf Kamal has emphasized on agricultural modernization in a bid to enhance food production and easing labour dependency in this sector.
The government has been providing farmers up to 50–70 per cent subsidies on agro-machinery, he said in his audio-visual budget speech in Parliament on Thursday.
He said about 71,502 of such machinery have been distributed including combined harvesters, reapers, clippers, and power tillers since 2010.
This has helped the farmers cope with agricultural labour scarcity and lower their production costs.
Also Read: Finance Minister starts unveiling Tk 678,064 cr national budget
Moreover, “we have taken up a project at a cost of Tk3,020 crore titled ‘‘Mechanization of Agriculture Work through Integrated Management’ which has targeted to distribute 51,300 units of agro-machinery of 12 categories between 2020-2025,” the minister said.
Synchronized cultivation has been introduced to take the maximum benefits of farm machinery by transplanting rice seedlings and harvesting in a synchronized manner.
Around US$ 4 billion invested in private economic zones : Kamal
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said that the investment in private economic zones is about US$ 4 billion.
He disclosed the figure in his budget speech mentioning that allocation of land has been made to 196 entities in various public economic zones with a proposed investment of about US$ 25 billion.
He said that the establishment of 100 economic zones in the country is well in progress.
The administrative approval has already been accorded to the proposal for establishment of 97 economic zones, of which the implementation work of 28 economic zones is underway.
Also read: Budget FY 23: 50 lakh low-income families to get food assistance
In order to make the PPP project implementation and the activities of the PPP authorities more robust and dynamic, steps are being taken to enact the ‘PPP (Amendment) Act, 2022’.
In order to enhance the confidence of investors in the projects under PPP initiatives investment development programmes are continuing, said Kamal.
The legal and regulatory framework of the PPP authorities is being simplified to implement large as well as social infrastructure projects under PPP in the future.
“We need more foreign investment to continue our growth. One of the key factors that work behind attracting the desired level of investment is the business-friendly environment,” said the finance minister.