Outlay Tk 8.05t, 6.75pc GDP growth Govt cuts

The government downsizes the gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the current fiscal to 6.5 per cent from the projected growth of 7.5 per cent in keeping with both internal and external challenges the economy faces now, officials said.
At the same time, the finance officials have revised upward the possible rate of inflation to 7.5 per cent from the current budgetary projection of 6.0 per cent, they added.
Moreover, the size of annual development programme for the current fiscal year has been pared down to Tk 2.45 trillion from the original size of Tk 2.63 trillion.
In doing the budgeting exercise close by the next election, they also prepared a budget outline for fiscal year 2024-25 with a bigger outlay of Tk 8.05 trillion while the GDP- growth target is set at 6.75 per cent.
The committee for coordination on fiscal, monetary, and currency exchange and resource management, headed by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, set these targets Thursday at a virtually held meeting.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, Planning Minister M A Mannan, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder, finance secretary Dr. Khairuzzaman Mozumder, and commerce secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh attended the meeting, among others.
Meeting sources said as the economic indices remained under pressure, the meeting decided to revise down the size of budget for fiscal year 2023-24 to Tk 7.10 trillion from the actual size of budget of Tk 7.61 trillion.
Due to this cut the size of budget got reduced by 6.8 per cent compared to 2.6 per cent in the previous fiscal year.
The meeting discussed keeping the inflation under control by raising policy interest rate and further controlling import, sources said.
Also the meeting was told that the country may receive some $1.5 billion this month from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which will help enhance the foreign-currency reserves to some extent.
An official who attended the meeting told the FE that proposal was there to make decision on introduction of fully market-based foreign-currency exchange rate to raise inflow of remittance through banking channel.
However, the meeting decided not to make the exchange rate totally market-driven because in the recent months taka depreciated significantly which has enhanced government's liability further.
Sources say usually the size of budget every year increases by 10 to 12 per cent. But, for the next fiscal year, the size is proposed by raising 6.0 per cent keeping in mind the global economic volatility.
For the next budget the amount of revenue earnings is estimated at Tk 5.55 trillion, officials said.

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