Parliament Secretariat to return unused Tk 80cr to govt

The Parliament Secretariat will return Tk 80 crore to the government, as Covid-19 pandemic forced fewer working days in holding parliament session, and fewer foreign tours and training programmes.

The Parliament Secretariat Commission today approved a Tk 341.89 crore budget for parliament to spend on its development and non-development expenditures for the next fiscal 2022-23.

The approval was given at the 33rd meeting of the Commission held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

The budget for the next fiscal is 1.72 percent higher than the main budget of the running fiscal, which was Tk 336.14 crore.

The Commission in its meeting also revised the budget to Tk 316.01 crore.

Shirin Sharmin while talking to the reporters said that the parliament has spent less money from the budget.

She mentioned that till May the amount of spent money was Tk 189 crore.

"We can return around Tk 80 crore at the end of the fiscal, as per the information from the Secretariat officials," she said.

The meeting also approved the estimated budget for the 2022-23 fiscal – Tk 341.89 crore in the management and development purposes. Of the total amount, allocation for development is Tk 80 lakh only.

It also approved the budget estimation of Tk 365.82 crore and Tk 391.43 crore for 2023-24 fiscal and 2024-25 fiscal.

Commission Members Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Law Minister Anisul Huq were present in the House.

Chief Whip Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury attended the meeting on special invitation.