Bangladesh's debt burden would not increase much even if the government borrowed $12 billion from Russia to build the Rooppur nuclear power plant, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said yesterday.

The banking sector was tainted by a series of scams, including some massive thefts, according to Finance Minister AMA Muhith.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith admits in Parliament that there are some irregularities in the banking sector and it is massive at times.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith who recently placed his tenth budget for Bangladesh announces he will not participate in the next Jatiya Sangshad elections.

The government is considering a further fuel price cut to pass on to consumers the benefit of low fuel prices on the international market, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said he deliberately set an ambitious revenue generation target in the upcoming budget, hoping for more tax collection by the National Board of Revenue. “I have said in the budget speech that it is deliberately ambitious,” he told reporters at a post-budget briefing in the capital's Osmani Memorial Auditorium.

While economists have praised the proposed budget's emphasis on mega projects, skill development and job creation, they have termed the revenue generation target very ambitious.

The cost of using a mobile phone would go up by more than two percent as the proposed budget looks to hike the supplementary duty on SIM usage.

With a plan to relieve big cities including Dhaka of the pressure of excessive population, Finance Minister AMA Muhith proposes to reduce withholding tax rates for real estate sector in the 2016-17 fiscal year budget.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith propose to place a monitoring and regulatory system to fight cybercrimes.

The government has decided not to bring any change to seven tax rates, which include tax-exempted income-threshold for individual tax payers.

The size of the upcoming budget may go up by 30 percent from the current fiscal year's revised outlay as the government seeks to fast-track the giant projects and complete one or two in its current tenure. The planned Tk 340,600 crore budget for fiscal 2016-17 would be 17.4 percent of the gross domestic product. In terms of share in the GDP, the planned budget is almost the same as the budget of fiscal 2015-16.

The 10th Parliament goes into its third budget session on June 1, says a Parliament Secretariat press release.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith says that the government is determined to bring all those involved in stealing money from the central bank’s account with Federal Reserve Bank of New York – be it foreigners and local.

Consumers might be slapped with a uniform 15 percent value added tax from next fiscal year as Finance Minister AMA Muhith

Despite opposition from businesses, Finance Minister AMA Muhith says a uniform 15 percent VAT will be applicable from next fiscal year.

Telecom division urges finance ministry to review tax and VAT structures on mobile handsets and accessories to make smartphones affordable to boost internet penetration.

The government decides to appoint former finance secretary and incumbent chairman of state-run Sonali Bank Fazle Kabir as new governor of Bangladesh Bank (BB), Finance Minister AMA Muhith says.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has cancelled his press conference minutes after the Bangladesh Bank governor resigned over the recent heist of $101 million out of the bank’s account with New York’s Federal Reserve Bank.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said he would take action against Bangladesh Bank for keeping him in the dark for more than a month about the theft of $101 million from the BB account with the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The central bank came to know about the incident two days after cyber thieves stole the money from the BB account on February 4 midnight when all the BB staff went on the two-day weekly holiday, according to BB officials.