President gives nod to Finance Bill 2020

President Abdul Hamid has given his consent to the Appropriation (supplementary) Bill 2020, Finance Bill 2020 and Appropriation Bill 2020 this afternoon, said the parliament secretariat.

Through this, the proposed budget for 2020-21 fiscal will come into effect from tomorrow, said a top official of the parliament secretariat.

Earlier in the day, parliament passed Tk 568,000 crore national budget for 2020-21 fiscal, with the slogan 'Economic Transition and Pathway to Progress'.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal moved the Appropriation Bill 2020 seeking a budgetary allocation of Tk 759,642.44 crore which was passed by voice vote.

Following the proposal by the Finance Ministry for the parliamentary approval of appropriation of funds for meeting necessary development and non-development expenditures of the government, the ministers concerned placed justifications for the expenditures by their respective ministries through 59 demands for grant.

Earlier, the House rejected by voice vote a total of only 421 cut-motions that stood in the name of opposition members on 59 demands for grants for different ministries.

A total of nine MPs from Jatiya Party and BNP submitted their cut-motions on the budget.

They were, however, allowed to participate in the discussion on Law Ministry and Health Ministry.

Later, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury quickened the process of passing the demands for grants for different ministries without giving lunch break.

Finance Minister on June 11 placed a Tk 568,000 crore to attain an ambitious 8.2 percent GDP, which has been revised to 5.2 percent in line with maintaining a 5.4 percent inflation for the next fiscal overcoming all the challenges and impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Earlier on Monday, the Jatiya Sangsad passed the Finance Bill 2020 with some minor changes.