He has prioritised power generation as a thrust action for the next three years and has sequenced the generation as 345MW in the first year, 900MW in the second year and 1,050MW in 2010 by when he aims to bring load shedding to nil.

However, industrialists will not find much to cheer about, except for retaining and increasing the current export subsidy to Tk 1,100 crore. Entrepreneurs will need to go through a more detailed work to understand whether the new harmonisation of duty slabs and supplementary duty and withdrawal of infrastructure development surcharge will gnaw away their protection and competitiveness. The textiles sector, which acts as the backward linkage for the main export sector readymade garment, will face a jolt as zero duty facility for textiles machinery import will be abolished.

Aziz has tried to be transparent in a number of areas. He has clearly shown, for the first time, what the nation buys with the resources mobilised--34.4 percent to be spent on physical infrastructure, 34.3 percent on social infrastructure and 19.3 percent on public administration. He has also internalised Tk 7,523 crore of the liabilities of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, which from a macroeconomic point of view was the right thing to do to relieve the nationalised commercial banks from losses.

However, in meeting all these goals, Aziz had to go for an expanded budget for the next fiscal year with the expenditure increasing by 19 percent from the revised expenditure of the current fiscal year. The current year's budget was only 14 percent bigger than the previous year's revised budget.

Such huge expenditure crucially needs bigger revenue collection target and effort too. He plans a 15.82 percent higher revenue collection for the next fiscal year from this year's revised figure. This looks higher if one compares it with the poor revenue collection of this fiscal year, which until now clocked a piffling 9 percent growth. Especially, many would view with scepticism the tax revenue collection increase of 17 percent. But then compared to this year's growth projection--19 percent over the previous year's revised figure--one would tend to say that Aziz was more closer to reality in proposing his revenue collection target.

Sensing the enormity of facing the revenue collection challenge, Aziz has talked about expanding the tax base, strengthening tax collection procedures, transparency and accountability of tax administration and quality management in tax regime.

But a bulk of his financing the budget will come from borrowing--both domestic and foreign. He plans to borrow Tk 19,276 crore from domestic sources, up from Tk 10,031 crore of the current year's revised budget, and Tk 6,305 crore from foreign sources, again up from Tk 5,183 crore of the current revised budget. Such huge domestic borrowing, 2.2 percent of GDP, may pose the risk of crowding out effect on the private sector. The risk would even spike if the revenue collection effort falters, leading to more borrowing.

But the impact of the past borrowing was evident in the proposed non-development expenditure analysis as interest payment is projected to account for 20.5 percent of the outlay from the current year's 17.7 percent.

And his budget deficit target--4.8 percent of GDP--is quite high from this year's 3.3 percent. He may have the feeling that a lack of ADP implementation will automatically bring down the deficit. But if his vow to firm up ADP implementation process works, the macro indicator will remain bloated.

But the other good thing the budget proposes is the cut down on block allocation from 16 percent of this year's total development allocation to 5 percent.

Aziz has set a higher GDP growth of 7 percent for the next year, which will depend on the government's spending capacity, growth of the agriculture and industry. He also hopes his measures will bring down inflation to 6.5 percent next fiscal year.

As part of his anti-inflation measures, Aziz proposes strengthening sales of essentials through BDR-operated markets and import of commodities by the government to stabilise the market. He also plans a more productive agriculture through increased allocation for research.

Aziz has proposed setting up of an SME Foundation with an allocation of Tk 100 crore and another Tk 23 crore for a Trust Fund under Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation to give a fillip to the small industrial sector.

The finance adviser has gone quite a way to establish equality in the society. He has increased ADP outlay by 35 percent in Rajshahi, Khulna and Barisal divisions--areas that witness the worst income distribution. Education has received a big boost in his proposed budget with 15.2 percent of development allocation going in that direction with the idea that a better education mass will have better income. A huge number of teachers--15,000--will be recruited to better the teacher-student ratio, 55 lakh primary students will get stipend at the rate of Tk 100 each, classrooms will be built and income generating training will be given to the literate.

In his bid to heavily support the agriculture, Aziz has proposed 23 percent of total allocation to the sector. A Tk 350 crore endowment will help agriculture research and development. More than that, he proposes a Tk 750 crore allocation for diesel subsidy for farmers and Tk 1,500 crore as fertiliser subsidy.

The proposed budget sees an extended form of the current social safety net programmes like VGD, and allowances for the destitute women and a Tk 550 crore employment generation programme for the rural poor.

Tk 87,137cr budget banks heavily on bank borrowing The caretaker government yesterday proposed a budget of Tk 87,137 crore for the fiscal year 2007-'08, making it 30 percent bigger than the revised budget for the current fiscal, relying heavily on massive

Budget big in size, highly ambitious Terming it highly ambitious and big in size, the Awami League (AL) yesterday said the proposed budget does not outline how the interim government will go about tackling price hike of essentials.

What's Up, Down UP Customs duty on CNG-run CBU bus may be increased to 15 percent from 5 percent to encourage assembling industry for CNG-run bus.

Load-shedding free Bangladesh by 2010 The government eyes a load shedding-free Bangladesh by 2010, finance adviser said in his budget speech yesterday.

Worry over proper implementation Appreciating the first-ever provision of taking public opinions about budget into account, former caretaker government adviser Akbar Ali Khan set out power sector development and checking high inflation

Safety net brackets more beneficiaries The caretaker government (CG) has proposed to strengthen the ongoing social safety net programmes by increasing the number of beneficiaries and funds for them in the budget for the next fiscal year.

Drastic measures to rein back prices In the proposed budget, the caretaker government has unveiled various measures including complete withdrawal of customs duties on some commodities and distribution of 10 lakh metric tons of food grains

Solid support for farm sector The proposed national budget for 2007-08 fiscal year introduced Tk 750 crore subsidy for diesel used to run irrigation equipment and increased the fertiliser sub-sector subsidy from previous Tk 1,100crore

Edible oil, lentil import made duty free The budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year proposed withdrawal of the four percent infrastructure development surcharge on import and customs duty on crude edible oil and lentil to keep the market price tolerable.

VAT net widens The proposed budget for 2007-08 has extended the VAT (value added tax) network bringing more goods and services within the net.

Priority on positives Renowned economist Debapriya Bhattacharya said the proposed budget reflects the government's ongoing infrastructure reform initiatives while Zaid Bakht termed implementation of "such a big budget" a challenge

Newsprint import duty cut by 10pc The finance adviser has proposed reduction in customs duty on newsprint import from the existing 25 percent to 15 percent.

Tax-free income limit pushed up to Tk 1.5 lakh The budget for fiscal 2007-08 brings forward a 13-point proposal for changes in the income tax structure including increasing the exemption limit of income tax for an individual to Tk 1.

25pc budget fund set aside for HR development The caretaker government has proposed a Tk 19,701-crore budgetary allocation for human resources development which, it believes, is the cornerstone of social infrastructure development.

EC gets Tk 536cr for election preparation Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday proposed an allocation of Tk 536 crore for the Election Commission (EC) to complete all preparations for holding the next parliamentary election.

Reconditioned car dealers' commission to be raised Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam in his budget speech yesterday proposed to increase the commission for the dealers of reconditioned cars.

ICT sector gets 21pc higher allocation Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday proposed an allocation of Tk 1,899 crore, which is 21 percent higher than that of the revised budget and 2.

Tax incentives for mobile firms going public Cellular phone operators would be offered tax incentives once their companies are enlisted on the stock exchanges in the country.

Tk 550cr extra fund for jobs for rural poor The finance adviser yesterday in his budget speech proposed an extra Tk 550 crore to be spent for employment generation in rural areas for the fiscal year 2007-08 through mostly non-government organisations

Separate funds proposed for IT, agricultural entrepreneurs Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday proposed to form two new funds-- Agriculture Entrepreneurship Fund and IT Equity Entrepreneurship Fund-- splitting the existing Equity Entrepreneurship Fund