FY23 budget execution slows to 86pc, lower than previous year’s

The government fell short of fully executing even the revised budget for the fiscal year 2022-23, spending only 86 per cent of the total outlay, officials said on Wednesday.
They attributed a mix of external and internal factors, including the war fallout on the global front and the inflationary burden at home, to the poor show.
The FY23 budget implementation marks a 2.52 percentage point decline from the 88.687 per cent budget implementation rate in the previous FY22, according to the Ministry of Finance data.
Finance ministry officials said that neither the operational budget nor the development budget was fully executed during the July 2022 to June 2023 period of the last fiscal.
In FY23, ministries and public agencies spent Tk 5.65 trillion, accounting for 86.15 per cent of the Tk 6.56 trillion revised budget outlay. In FY22, they utilised Tk 5.22 trillion, equivalent to 88.68 per cent of the Tk 5.88 trillion revised budget.
The government initially proposed a Tk 6.71 trillion national budget for FY23, which was later trimmed to Tk 6.55 trillion.
Regarding the low implementation rate, a senior finance ministry official pointed the finger at the economic stress due to the Russia-Ukraine war and inflationary pressures.
The FY23 execution breakdown shows the implementation rate for the operational budget was higher than that of the development spending. According to the finance ministry, ministries and agencies spent Tk 3.61 trillion, corresponding to 87.1 per cent of the Tk 4.14 trillion operational budget outlay.
On the other hand, they utilised Tk 2.04 trillion funds, representing 84.46 per cent of the Tk 2.42 trillion revised development budget outlay.
In FY22, the ministries and agencies spent 87.99 per cent of the operational budget and 89.1 per cent of the development budget.
Within the operating budget expenditure categories, the agriculture sector recorded the highest spending rate of 98 per cent.
The social security and welfare sector followed closely behind with 99.2 per cent, followed by the public order and safety sector at 94.3 per cent, the interest payment sector at 93.3 per cent, the housing sector at 92.2 per cent, the education sector at 91.7 per cent, the local government and rural development sector at 91.0 per cent, the fuel and energy sector at 90.2 per cent and the defence sector at 88.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, the actual expenditure during FY23 amounted to 84.5 per cent of the revised development budget. This compares to the 87.99 per cent of the revised budget spent during the same period of the previous FY22.
From July 2022 to June 2023, the spending rate in fuel and energy sector was 99.6 per cent, social security and welfare was 91.8 per cent, agriculture, fisheries and livestock was 89.7, transport and communication was 89.4 per cent, recreation, culture and religious affairs was 87.3 per cent, housing was 87.0 per cent; and industries, jute, textiles, commerce, labour and overseas was 85.4 per cent.

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