Next budget to set 6.5pc growth target
Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday said the next budget would set the GDP growth target at 6.5 percent and seek to keep inflation within 9 percent.
Besides, he said, it would focus on creating a business- and investment-friendly climate.
Talking to reporters after meeting the National Board of Revenue (NBR) officials, the adviser said the revenue growth target would be 17 percent higher than this year's.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) forecast says the gross domestic product growth in the current fiscal year would range between 6 and 6.2 percent.
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), inflation has already exceeded 10 percent mark both on point-to-point and averages basis.
Asked about the meeting with NBR officials, Mirza Aziz said, "We have discussed how to make the tax structures business-friendly and lessen discretionary power of the tax officials."
At the briefing at the planning ministry, he talked about the agricultural census that began yesterday and asked all to cooperate with the data-takers.
The information will be used in formulating agricultural policy and planning programmes like the one to increase crops production, he observed.
The adviser said the census report is expected to be published by June next year after processing the information to be collected simultaneously in urban and rural areas.
Planning Secretary Zafar Ahmed Chowdhury and BBS Director General AYM Ekramul Huq were present at the briefing.
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