Government spending from the current budget balloons further with another sum of Tk37.82 billion as parliament Monday passed a supplementary budget to meet increased expenditures under different ministries, overruling objections.
Finance AH Mahmood Ali placed the supplementary budget for the outgoing fiscal 2023-24 in the House on June 6 along with the new national budget.
On Monday, the Finance Minister moved three bills to push the supplementary budget through the House following general discussion on it and on cut motions.
In the budget for 2023-24 fiscal the net allocation for 62 ministries and divisions was Tk7.62 trillion.
In the supplementary budget, expenditure of 22 ministries and divisions got enhanced while expenditure of 40 ministries and divisions remained either unchanged or reduced.
A total of 51 demands for grants were placed Monday to appropriate the allocations for different ministries, divisions and institutions.
Over 160 cut motions were moved by the members, mostly by the opposition and independent lawmakers. But all the motions were rejected by overwhelming 'nays' when the cuts were put to vote.
During the discussions on the motions, the lawmakers flayed the government for what they said its failure in bringing back discipline in the baking sector.
Opposition Chief Whip Mujibul Huq Chunnu told the House that several business groups were given unprecedented facilities to reschedule their loans amounting to several thousand- crore taka "unlawfully whereas there are examples of farmers being arrested for defaulting on only 50 thousand" .
The JP lawmaker, while making his cut motion on the allocation for finance division, noted that this division is responsible for supervising the banking sector. "But the entire banking sector is now in a mess."
To push his point he said, "One PK Halder alone swindled over 3.5-thousand crore from the banking system."
Discussions were also held on cut motions on ICT division.
The supplementary allocations are as follows; Agriculture Ministry Tk8157 crore, Cultural Affairs Ministry Tk65 crore, Finance Division Tk 495 crore, Planning Commission Tk 12649 crore, Labour and Employment Ministry Tk26 crore, Information and Broadcasting Ministry Tk 17 crore, Religious Affairs Ministry Tk61 crore, Youth and Sports Ministry Tk 213 crore, Local Government Division Tk 2139 crore, Mineral Resources Division Tk 184 crore, Water Resources Ministry Tk 4360 crore, Disaster Management and Relief Ministry Tk470 crore, Post and Telecommunications Division Tk 248 crore, Election Commission Tk2362 crore, Public Administration Ministry Tk592 crore, , CAG Tk8.4 crore, Finance Division Tk495 crore, ERD Tk5122 crore, IMED Tk67 crore, Statistics Division Tk152 crore and ICT Division Tk14 crore.
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