Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today said the proposed budget for fiscal 2019-20 is pro-people and there is no negativity in it.

The Jatiya Sangsad passes the proposed Tk 4,64,573 crore national budget for 2018-19 fiscal year.

Housing and Public Works Minister Engr Mosharraf Hossain suggests cutting down customs duty on liquor for the sake of flourishing tourism in the country.

No VAT or tax has been imposed on remittance in the proposed budget for 2018-19 fiscal year, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) says.

In a rare show of anger and frustration, some ruling party and opposition lawmakers blasted the finance minister in parliament yesterday for his complete silence on the widespread irregularities in the banking sector during his budget speech.

​Opposition and some of the ruling party lawmakers in the parliament criticises Finance Minister AMA Muhith for not stating any measures in the proposed budget for fiscal 2018-19 against irregularities in the financial and banking sectors.

The proposed budget for fiscal 2018-19 does not have any directions to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) says.

With the budget implementation rate falling consistently for the last seven fiscal years, Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said the government would achieve the targets in the proposed budget even though its execution starts in an election year.

Online shopping will be excluded from the purview of the 5 percent value-added tax that was proposed on virtual businesses in the budget for 2018-19.

The proposed budgetary measures for fiscal 2018-19 will benefit the high and low income people, leaving the middle- and lower middle-class, which form the majority of Bangladesh's population, strained, said the Centre for Policy Dialogue yesterday.

Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (MCCI) expresses discontent over the proposed corporate tax structure in the budget for fiscal 2018-19.

A corporate tax cut for listed banks, insurance companies and financial institutions and announcement of development measures for the bond market are the only achievements of stock investors from the budget announced for FY 2018-19.

The proposed rise in corporate tax will hurt the flow of fresh investment into the garment sector as entrepreneurs will feel discouraged to inject fresh funds, said the top leader of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) yesterday.

Asad Kazi of Bagerhat was advised dialysis for kidney disease. His wife Hawa told doctors that they wanted medicinal treatment as dialysis would cost them Tk 7,000 a month on average.

As the government had formulated National Education Policy immediately after coming to power in 2009, educationists started advocating for spending at least six percent of the GDP for education.

Customer will have to pay more for products and service bought from one's mobile phone as the government yesterday introduced a 5 percent value-added tax on those from next fiscal year and also raised the surcharge on handset imports.

It looks like another repeat story. We had a big budget that failed to achieve its targets. Now we are pushing for a bigger one with higher targets. But with the ground reality remaining the same, are we to see a story foretold for the next year?

Interest payments get the fourth highest allocation, which is also higher than the combined allocation for health, social security and welfare in the proposed budget for 2018-19.

Samidul Haque obtained a BBA degree from a private university a year ago.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith presented the FY2018-19 national budget to parliament yesterday. This is a historic event in the sense that it is his tenth consecutive budget that reflects the continuity in fiscal management.