Domestic, foreign debts interest payment: Tk 1.02 lakh cr allocated for next FY
Staff Reporter :
Domestic and foreign debts interest payments will cost Tk 1.02 lakh crore in the upcoming fiscal year (2023-24), according to the Finance Ministry sources.
The size of the forthcoming budget will be Tk 7.60 lakh crore. The target of the total revenue collection is likely to be Tk 5 lakh crore. Of the amount, Tk 4.30 lakh will be collected by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the rest Tk 70,000 will be non-tax revenue, the officials said.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal will place upcoming proposed national budget in the Parliament on June 1.
In the proposed budget, a big proton has been kept for paying interest of the external and internal borrowings, the officials said.
The aggregate government debt liabilities have stood approximately Tk 13.60 lakh crore as of last December, according to latest official data on borrowings from internal and external sources for deficit financing.
Of the total public debts, domestic borrowing was Tk 8.64 lakh crore and external Tk 4.96 lakh crore, the data showed.
External interest payments accounted for only 6 per cent of the total government interest expenses, while domestic debt constitutes the major share of the total debt stock and financing from domestic sources are increasing gradually.
As on December 31, 2022, domestic and external debts accounted for 64 per cent and 36 per cent of the total debt stock, respectively.
On the other hand, Tk 1.10 lakh crore has been kept for subsidies in different sectors. Of this, Tk 33,000 crore has been allocated for the power sector, which was Tk 23,000 crore in the revised budget of the current fiscal year.
Besides, Tk 17,000 crore has been kept for the agriculture sector as subsidy, which was Tk 16,000 crore in the current fiscal year.
Under the social security programme, the allowances of some of the elderly, widows and disabled are being increased and the number of beneficiaries is also increasing.
On the other hand, the system of selling daily commodities at affordable prices will be continued for the low income people through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
Meanwhile, controlling current inflation is one of the challenges of the upcoming fiscal year’s budget and the inflation rate is being projected 6.5 per cent, the ministry sources said.
The target of growth of gross domestic product (GDP) is being estimated 7.5 per cent in the next budget.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal placed the summary of the budget before the Prime Minister at Ganobhaban on Wednesday night.
Planning Minister MA Mannan, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder and NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem, among others, were present.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister gave necessary direction for the preparing the budget.
She also directed to increase the rate of implementation of the Annual Development Program (ADP) and to strengthen the monitoring system as well as increasing the receipt and utilisation of pledged funds from abroad.
