Of the total amount, $111.07 million was received in credit and $5.21 million in grants.

Since July 1996, the country received a total of $6231.77 million from donors as of September 30, 2003. During the same period $1117.08 million was paid in interest on foreign loans, the minister said in the question answer session.

Of the total amount of credit, the World Bank provided the highest $47.31 million while Asian Development Bank $38.76 million and Japan $25 million.

Replying to a question on income tax collection, the finance minister said the number of income tax payers in the country is now 14,73,776.

"The number of income tax payers in proportion to population is not satisfactory," he said adding that a survey is on to enlist new taxpayers.

Besides, he said, the government has taken initiative to bring individual taxable people of different categories under the tax-net through enacting a law.

Saifur told the parliament that the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has so far identified 195,687 new taxpayers throughout the country, from whom income tax worth about Tk 75 crore could be realised annually.

On a separate question on revenue collection he said revenue earnings in the first four months (July-October) of 2003-2004 fiscal amounted to Tk 7507.52 crore as against the annual target of Tk 27,750 crore.

During the first two months (July-August) of this fiscal, Tk 206 crore tax was collected from non-NBR sources as against the annual target of Tk 1321 crore. Non-tax revenue earning during the same period amounted to Tk 1322 crore.

Saifur Rahman said a total of 49 nationalised, private, specialised and foreign banks are now in operation in Bangladesh. "The government at this moment has no plan to give permission to any new bank," he told the parliament.

Replying to a question on share market cases the minister said 15 cases regarding the 1996 share scam are now under trial. Of them, charges were framed in seven cases in lower courts while the rest are pending in the high court.