Inflation control, FDI increase core instructions

Curbing inflationary pressures on people, enhancing revenue, discouraging import of luxury items and augment foreign direct investment (FDI) are must-do instructions for finance officials finalising next fiscal budget.
They also have to make sure that the election manifesto of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League is reflected in the budget 2024-25, sources said about the directions coming from government high-ups.
True to a tradition, Finance Division officials placed the draft budget before the Prime Minister and her aides on Monday for approval and advice deemed fit before the die is cast.
At the meeting, top officials of the Prime Minister's Office came up with these suggestions for the finance officials to follow as they are completing budget preparation to place before parliament on June 6, the sources said.
A senior Finance Division official told the FE that they were asked to take measures to enhance the use of fiscal devices in revenue collection to avoid tax evasion.
He said the meeting also reviewed the draft budget to check reflection of pledges made in the last election by the ruling party. The participants in the meeting expressed their satisfaction over the matter.
The meeting took serious note of inflation taking heavy toll on people's living, especially on commoners, and so measures have to be taken to lower inflationary pressures "as soon as possible".
This April, the rate of inflation on a point-to-point basis slightly declined to 9.74 per cent from 9.81 per cent in the previous month of March, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data show.
Meantime, officials said, as local currency depreciated by Tk 7.0 last week against the US dollar with a resultant significant rise in spending, finance officials now plan to rearrange expenditures internally in the budget on the anvil.
The issue also came up for discussion at the PMO meeting, said an official.
He said in the budget there are some expenditures being defrayed in foreign currencies. Also, the spending for external loan repayment will rise due to the taka depreciation.
"But we won't change the size of the budget due to taka depreciation. We have to internally rearrange the expenditures to manage it," he said.
Sources said as outlined at the last meeting of the committee for coordination on fiscal, monetary, and currency exchange, the budget for the next fiscal year will be worth Tk 7.97 trillion with the total revenue-mobilisation target set at Tk 5.4 trillion of which the national board of revenue will be tasked to collect Tk 4.80 trillion.
The rate of inflation has been targeted down at 6.5 per cent from a usual nine-plus-percent rate while the gross domestic product (GDP) growth target at 6.75 per cent.
In the new fiscal year the budget deficit is estimated at Tk 2.57 trillion while the size of annual development programme (ADP) at Tk 2.65 trillion.

[email protected]