In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, health and family welfare sector gets priority with an increased budgetary allocation in the proposed national budget for financial year (FY) 2020-2021.
Placing the budget statement on Thursday, finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal proposed an allocation of Tk 292.47 billion (29247 crore) in the upcoming fiscal.
This is up by Tk 55.55 billion or 23.44 per cent from the revised budget (Tk 236.92 billion) of FY '20 and 5.14 per cent of the Tk 5.68-trillion budget.
"This increased allocation is proposed for health and family welfare sector, prioritising activities undertaken to combat Covid-19," Mr Kamal mentioned.
In addition, the government has proposed to keep Tk 100 billion aside as a 'lump sum' amount to fulfil emergency healthcare requirements in the fight against coronavirus.
Simultaneously, Mr Kamal also proposed formation of an 'Integrated Health-Science Research and Development Fund' of Tk 1.0 billion to finance the development of research in health education, science and technology.
A high-powered committee comprising experienced health researchers, nutritionists, public-health experts, sociologists, economists, environmentalists and civil-society representatives will be formed to manage this fund efficiently and effectively.
It is to be noted that 13 ministries and divisions are currently implementing programmes related to health and family welfare.
The allocation for this purpose is Tk 410.27 billion (Tk 41,027 crore), which is 1.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 7.2 per cent of the total budget.
In an immediate post-budget reaction, Bangladesh Medical Association secretary general Dr Md Ehteshamul Huq Choudhury hailed the proposal of allocating Tk 100 billion in the fight against coronavirus.
He also thanked the government for proposing the constitution of a fund for research in health-education and science and technology.
But Mr Choudhury was upset to find a conservative budget in the health sector, saying that the government spent 4.9 per cent of the total allocation in the outgoing fiscal.
"It has increased to 5.2 per cent in this budget. How can we strengthen our health system with these amounts in the disastrous post-corona regime?"
"It's impossible. It should have been 7-8 per cent of the total allocation," Mr Choudhury observed.
Prof Kazi Kamruzzaman, chairman of Dhaka Community Hospital Trust, said increased allocation would not be fruitful unless transparency and accountability in spending is ensured.
He said the nation has earlier witnessed a lack of coordination and inefficiency in dealing with crisis situations like the COVID-19 outbreak.
"If we want to take a reflection of increased allocations to the common people, the government should pay a serious attention to these areas," he added.
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