Tk 7.97 lakh cr deficit budget with Tk 2.5 lakh cr borrowing

Budget for 2024-25: The use of resources.

Finance Minister Mahmood Ali on Thursday presented a Taka 7.97 lakh Taka crore national budget for 2024-25 with an overall deficit of Taka 2.56 lakh crore or nearly one third of the outlay.

The total revenue receipts have been estimated at 5.45 lakh crore. The Finance Minister has proposed to meet the deficit with 1.27 lakh crore foreign borrowing and Taka 1.60 lakh crore domestic borrowing including Taka 1.37 lakh crore from the banking system.

Of the total outlay made in the budget Taka 5.06 lakh crore comprise the revenue budget including lakh 4.69 lakh crore recurring expenditure.

The development outlay of 2.81 lakh crore is almost entirely dependent on domestic and foreign borrowing as high revenue expenditure leaves only about 39,000 crore revenue surplus. 

The Finance Ministry in his budget speech made in Parliament has promised a six percentage point plus rate of growth which might be subject to fluctuations in the domestic economy as well as external shocks which cannot be ruled out because of the ongoing Ukraine and the Gaza wars and sudden outbreak of hostilities at a number of flash points.

Despite an assurance for serving the non-affluent section of the people the revenue generation appears to be dependent mostly on VAT and other indirect taxes which are likely to overburden the ordinary people. – GreenWatch News Desk