Food, disaster get highest allocation

Staff Correspondent

The Jatiya Sangsad yesterday passed the budget for the fiscal year 2009-10 in the absence of the main opposition BNP.

The budget, the first by this Awami League government to be implemented from today, outlines Tk 1,89,960 crore of gross expenditure, including revenue and development, and Tk 1,13,819 crore of net expenditure.

The food and disaster management ministry has received the maximum allocation of Tk 12,946 crore in both development and non-development sectors.

The defence ministry received the second highest allocation of Tk 8,199 crore followed by the Local Government Division with an allocation of Tk 7,934 crore.

The education ministry received Tk 7,415 crore, health ministry Tk 7,000 crore, primary and mass education ministry Tk 6,617 crore, home ministry Tk 5,879 crore and the power division Tk 3,578 crore.

As the BNP remained absent from the whole budget session their cut motion proposals were not placed in the House yesterday. Only a few proposals by independent lawmaker Fazlul Azim were placed.

The absence of the opposition made the process of passing the budget very quick in just about two hours.

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina and Finance Minister AMA Muhith gave concluding speeches on the budget.

The finance bill on tax and tariff was also passed in the House on that day, with revision of tax proposals for mobile phone, newsprint, cars and some other items.

Tax on cellphone handsets has been reduced to 12 percent from the proposed 25 percent in the budget. The five percent regulatory duty on mobile sets has been waived.

The proposed 5 percent customs duty on the import of newsprint has been reduced to 3 percent.

The budget for FY10 has been formulated mainly in the light of the Awami League's election manifesto. Safety net, measures for facing aftermath of recession, attracting investment has been stressed in the budget.

On the other hand, the budget targets the rich in an attempt to earn additional revenue and stop tax evasion. A part of the additional revenue will come from the GDP growth.

Attempts were made in tax structure so that the tax burden does not fall much on the poor. As a result, prices of essentials did not go up after the budget was placed.

Both the prime minister and the finance minister have urged all including government officials concerned to work from day one of the new fiscal year to properly implement the budget.

Related stories in star business