Finance Advisor Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed presented a budget of 7 lakh 90 thousand crore taka to the nation with the determination to build a non-discriminatory and sustainable economic system.
The Finance Advisor presented this budget to the nation at 3 pm on Monday (June 2). He said that building a balanced distribution of wealth and a non-discriminatory Bangladesh is one of the goals of this year’s budget.
The Finance Advisor said that formulating a rational and implementable budget by maintaining a balance between revenue income and government expenditure will also be one of the objectives of this budget.
Salehuddin Ahmed mentioned that the activities of the National Board of Revenue are continuing to achieve the medium-term revenue collection target, including rationalizing tax exemptions, in order to increase revenue collection in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
He said that the manpower has been increased to further strengthen the activities of the National Board of Revenue. In addition, the issue of gradually reducing tax exemptions, expanding the tax net, and setting VAT at the same rate on various goods and services is under active consideration.
The Financial Advisor has proposed a total revenue collection of Tk 564,000 crore in the fiscal year 2025-26, which is 9 percent of the GDP. Of this, Tk 499,000 crore has been proposed to be collected through the National Board of Revenue and Tk 65,000 crore from other sources.
The Financial Advisor has proposed a total expenditure of Tk 790,000 crore for the new fiscal year, which is 12.7 percent of the GDP. Of this, Tk 560,000 crore has been proposed for other sectors including operations and Tk 230,000 crore for the annual development program.
The Financial Advisor said, taking into account the fact that no salary structure has been formulated since 2015, I am proposing to increase the amount of special benefits for government employees in this budget.
Stating that the overall budget deficit and debt will remain at a tolerable level in the next fiscal year, the Finance Advisor has said that the deficit in the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2025-26 will be Tk 2,26,000 crore. Which is 3.6 percent of GDP.
Out of the total deficit, Tk 1,25,000 crore has been proposed to be taken from domestic sources and Tk 1,11,000 crore from foreign sources in the proposed budget. The interest payment expenditure has been estimated at Tk 1,22,000 crore.
Supplementary Budget for the Fiscal Year 2024-25
In the current supplementary budget for the fiscal year 2024-25, it has been proposed to reduce the revenue collection target by Tk 23,000 crore from the main budget to Tk 5,18,000 crore. Government expenditure has been reduced by Tk 53,000 crore to Tk 7,44,000 crore. Out of this, the size of the annual development program has been reduced from Tk 2,65,000 crore to Tk 2,16,000 crore.
The deficit in the current fiscal year’s budget was estimated at Tk 2.56 trillion. The revised budget proposes a deficit of Tk 2.26 trillion, which is 4.1 percent of GDP.
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