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Bangladesh: Budget to get 30pc bigger

The size of the upcoming budget may go up by 30 percent from the current fiscal year's revised outlay as the government seeks to fast-track the giant projects and complete one or two in its current tenure.

The planned Tk 340,600 crore budget for fiscal 2016-17 would be 17.4 percent of the gross domestic product. In terms of share in the GDP, the planned budget is almost the same as the budget of fiscal 2015-16.

The pattern of income and expenditure in the 2016-17 budget would be as usual. For example, as in the previous years, there would be big allocations for salaries and wages of public servants, subsidies and interest payments.

In the upcoming budget, the government is likely to set an ambitious revenue earning target. It was seen in the past that the government had to revise down the targets at the end of the year, and it still couldn't achieve the revised targets.  

The main focus of Finance Minister AMA Muhith's eighth consecutive budget would be on speeding up implementation of some mega infrastructure projects and boosting private investment with the aim of creating more jobs.

He would project an economic growth of 7.5 percent in the coming fiscal year as the government seeks to inject life into stagnant private investment and create more jobs, say finance ministry officials.  

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