The proposed budget will be 15.2 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the budget speech of the finance minister.

Since the budget is a political process, the rules of the budgetary game are set within that continuum.

The government’s foreign debt servicing burden may rise by as much as 45 percent in the next fiscal year due to the devaluation of taka and higher utilisation of foreign loans in recent years.

In 2019, when AHM Mustafa Kamal took charge as the finance minister, the Bangladesh economy was taxing for take-off for its long-haul flight to the developed country club.

High corporate taxes on banks, non-bank financial institutions, merchant banks, insurance companies and telecommunication companies are not logical as their profit is not high compared to capital, said Shahidul Islam, chief executive officer of VIPB Asset Management Company.

The voices of disadvantaged groups, the poor and small entrepreneurs have remained unheard when it comes to policy-making as fiscal policies have been captured by vested sections of society, alleged Towfiqul Islam Khan, a senior research fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.

The government is likely to fail to implement its national budget fully in the ongoing fiscal year owing to policymakers’ over-optimism and a lack of capacity of public agencies.

Amidst the steep rise in commodity prices, and a sky-high aspiration of sustaining GDP growth, what are the major challenges of creating an effective budget for Bangladesh this year? What should we look for from the FY 23-24 budget?

Addressing many of our economic problems is proving to be difficult not mainly for economic reasons, but because of political ones.

Bangladesh’s economy has been growing at an average 6 per cent annually for the last two decades. Yet the country has witnessed a spike in income and consumption inequality.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told parliament today that the government does not directly give any subsidy to fuel oil..In reply to a query from AL MP Haji Selim, the state minister said BPC incurred a loss of about Tk 2,705 crore in 2021-22 fiscal, fo

The budget for the 2023-24 fiscal will be passed in parliament on June 26 while the Finance Bill will be passed on June 25

The two AI tools marked what should be Bangladesh' priority

In June last year when Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal placed the budget in parliament, inflation had already been creeping up and the foreign currency reserves were on the decline. These two had derailed the full economic recovery from a two-year crisis wrought by the Covid pandemic.

The allocation for subsidies in agriculture, food, and power will be raised considerably in the next budget, with an aim to ease inflationary pressure on people.

The macroeconomic stability that Bangladesh's economy has enjoyed for a long time has disappeared in the face of multiple challenges – from both external and domestic sources.

Government must ensure that the most vulnerable get the assistance they need

The government is yet to take any comprehensive corrective measures to tackle macroeconomic challenges as it has not properly assessed the gravity of the situation in the current fiscal year, an economist said.  

Reforms following the IMF prescription should not harm disadvantaged groups

The upcoming budget poses significant challenges – arguably the most challenging in recent times – for economic policymaking in Bangladesh.