Boost for digital projects

The huge budgetary allocation for digitising the government's system and services will speed up the ongoing digitisation process, said the experts and sector leaders.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has allocated Tk 11,641 crore for digitising public system and services for 2017-18. The allocation, which is 2.91 percent of the total budget, is 40.15 percent higher than that of the outgoing fiscal year.

Of the amount, Tk 9,242 crore was allocated specifically for 76 projects that will be implemented by different ministries and agencies on health, education, power, information and law enforcement. Of the projects, national ICT infrastructure development project Info-Sarkar (Info-government) gets highest allocation of Tk 1,306.22 crore, reads the budget document. 

Shameem Ahsan, director of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said Tk 9,242 crore is not a matter of joke. “Allocating this huge amount of money also means something extra,” said Shameem, also the former president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS).

There are around one thousand ICT-related companies in the country and every company could roughly get work worth around Tk 10 crore, Shameem added.

However, requesting anonymity a top entrepreneur, said handsome allocation does not always mean that the service delivery process will become faster and easier.

The industry insiders and experts also hailed the government initiative to cut customs duty on 94 raw materials and accessories required to manufacture and assemble computer, laptop, tablet computer and mobile handset.

The tax structure will help the country turn into an exporter of digital accessories from an importing country, said Mustafa Jabbar, president of BASIS. At the same time, he also expressed satisfaction on withdrawal of VAT from locally developed software and imposition of customs duty on imported software.

In the budget document, the finance minister said when they took office, export earnings were only a few million. In 2014, it crossed $445 million.

It crossed more than $700 million last year, said the industry leaders. “We have targeted to hit $5 billion landmark in export earnings by 2021 and the allocation and taxation policies will help us achieve the goal before our estimated target,” said Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT, in a press conference yesterday about the proposed budget.

Like previous years, the finance minister also presented a separate book on the country's digitisation issues named "Advancement towards Digital Bangladesh: Situation 2017" on Thursday, where he said in 2008 internet penetration was 2.67 percent in the country, which increased to 41.52 percent as of February.

“The government is planning to increase internet penetration hundred percent by 2020…,” said the finance minister.

To achieve the digitisation target, the government has already provided free internet to 6,600 madrasas and established 3,172 computer labs in the educational institutions.

To speed up service delivery, 265 public office opened Facebook pages to receive complaints and share innovation. Some offices have YouTube channels as well for sharing ideas and information, said Muhith.

The proposed budget allocation for ICT reaches Tk 3,974 crore from Tk 1,835. The division has spent all the money of their current allocation -- Palak termed it their success.

The budget also proposed including eight new sectors for tax holiday: software or application customisation, website development, website hosting, digital data analytics, software test lab services, overseas medical transcription, robotics process outsourcing and cyber security services.