Gani Mia is a farmer with no land of his own. He grows paddy, jute and other crops in others’ fields. His story, though fictitious, is in school textbooks and etched in the minds of many. It stands true for a large number of the country’s farmers, especially the marginal ones.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday presented parts of the national budget as Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal fell sick halfway through his speech.

The ruling Awami League yesterday termed the proposed national budget “pro-people” and “realistic” but the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) were critical.

In a stark contrast to the past few years, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal proposed 10 percent supplementary duty on issuance or renewal of all kinds of vehicle reg-istration, route permit, fitness certificates and ownership certificate—with exemptions for

Allocation of Total Government Expenditure by Sectors FY 2019-20

In a push to widen the social safety net, the government decided to include all registered differently abled people, and more marginalised and vulnerable ones under its protection.

Mobile phone services are likely to become costlier from today due to increased taxes. The National Board of Revenue sent a regulatory order to the mobile carries to increase the supplementary duty (SD) to 10 percent from 5 from midnight yesterday.

Businesses yesterday welcomed the budget as the government proposed some new initiatives which would aid growth, give rise to new entrepreneurs and enable more people to enjoy benefits of social safety net programmes.

Fiscal policy, embodied in the government’s national budget, is an important determinant of macroeconomic stability, growth and equity. The FY20 budget maintains the usual prudence we have gotten used to with a 5 percent of GDP overall deficit target of which 2.7 percentage point is projected to be financed from domestic sources and the rest from foreign sources.

The government has planned to form a special wing to reduce mismanagement and stop any clearance of goods through mis-declaration in the bonded warehouses.

The proposed budget is an ambitious one. We expect clear guidelines and plans from the government how this budget is going to be implemented, given the fact that weak implementation of budget has become a norm in recent years. It is important to highlight how the performance of different ministries will be improved to implement this proposed budget.

Total budget increased by 18 percent as compared to revised budget 2018-19. Similarly, development budget increased by 22 percent as compared to revised budget as well. No doubt, this is ambitious and involves lot of challenges in implementation.

The government has significantly raised the price of tobacco products, including cigarette and bidi, which is a major public health concern in Bangladesh, in a bid to restraint tobacco consumption and surge revenue collection.

It has become a tradition for the budget to be increased every year by 17-18 percent so this year, there was no reason to expect this to change. Generally, Bangladesh’s budget has maintained a sectoral balance in its stance, giving priority to education, agriculture, infrastructure and social sector expenditures.

The cost of mobile phone usage is going up from tonight as the national board of revenue has already sent statuary regulatory order (SRO) to all mobile phone operators soon after placing the proposed national budget for 2019-20 fiscal in the parliament.

It was a first for Bangladesh. The honourable prime minister had to salvage the budget presentation mid-way to substitute for an ailing debutant finance minister, perhaps lending this policy document greater weight than usual.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, in his budget speech, has projected the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate at 8.2 per cent in the proposed national budget for 2019-20 fiscal.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will brief media over budget tomorrow as Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal is ill.

Find the pie charts for the national budget for fiscal year 2019-20 that Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has placed in the parliament.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in his budget speech in the parliament says that the government will avoid issuing statutory regulatory order (SRO) without any abnormal situation to bring transparency in the revenue management.