Govt spending rises 4.8pc

The government's spending rose by 4.8 percent year-on-year to Tk 46,654 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said in parliament yesterday.

The government presented a hefty Tk 400,267 crore budget for the current fiscal year, but the pace of implementation was slower than the last year. Year-on-year, non-development expenditure increased by 2.3 percent to Tk 36,129 crore while the development expenditure rose by 39.1 percent to Tk 10,528 crore.

In 2016-17, the actual expenditure of the budget was Tk 261,503 crore, down from the revised estimate of Tk 317,172 crore, he said. In the same year, the development expenditure was Tk 77,256 crore while the revised estimate was Tk 110,700 crore.

However, the expenditure, according to the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), touched Tk 100,839 crore in the year, which means the difference between the two government agency figures was Tk 23,474 crore.

The total revenue in the first three months of the current fiscal year rose by 17.1 percent to Tk 51,127 crore. During the same time last fiscal year, the growth was 14 percent. The non-NBR revenue collection increased by 69 percent and NBR revenue 19.3 percent.

During the period, six out of the top 10 large ministries spent less than they did in the last fiscal year.

The expenditure of the public safety division fell by 23 percent to Tk 2,720 crore while that of primary and mass education ministry plunged by 14.67 percent to Tk 2,802 crore and secondary and higher education division by 18.75 percent to Tk 4,089 crore.

Expenditure of the health service division also fell by 11.23 percent to Tk 2,134 crore, agriculture ministry by 10.52 percent to Tk 848 crore and railways ministry by 91.46 percent to Tk 85 crore.

However, expenditure of roads and highways division increased by 218 percent to Tk 2,229 crore.