Bangladesh is one of the nine guest countries of the summit this year

4,621 loan recipients to get the benefit, the finance minister said at the parliament

Self-contradictory is what best describes Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal’s fifth budget, and the last of the Awami League-led government’s current term.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today in his budget speech hoped that the ongoing stress in the foreign exchange reserves would improve in a short period of time.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today proposed formulating rules for authorising tax return preparers (TRPs) in Bangladesh with a view to expanding the tax net by adding more individual taxpayers.

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 top 20 defaulters in the country have a total debt of Tk 19,283.93 crore while the amount of defaulted loans is Tk 16,587.92 crore.

Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank and First Security Islami Bank lent about Tk 9,500 crore under suspicious circumstances, as reported by different media. Of the sum, Tk 7,246 crore has been taken from Islami Bank alone.

The government yesterday sought more loans in concessional terms from the World Bank despite being the largest recipient of such funding as well as more budget support as it looks to shake off the impacts of the pandemic and the Ukraine war.

After the International Monetary Fund it is now its sister concern World Bank’s turn to negotiate economic reforms with the government for the prospective $2 billion financial support package sought to help the country weather the global economic turmoil.

Confirming Bangladesh’s request for a loan from International Monetary Fund (IMF) Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said that it does not mean the country's economy is in bad shape.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal criticised media for reporting that inflation hit a nine-year high in June.

Authorities must explore alternative options

Parliament today(June 13, 2022) passed the supplementary budget of Tk 17,524 crore for fiscal 2021-22 to meet the increased expenditures under different ministries and divisions.

The health sector was yet again neglected in the national budget, with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal earmarking around Tk 36,864 crore -- 5.43 percent of the total budget -- for the sector.

The government is going to increase the subsidy by big margin for fertilisers in the next fiscal year (2022-23) due to the sharp rise in its price in the global markets.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal sees six major challenges for the fiscal year 2022-23:

The additional 1 per cent cash incentive on the export receipts of readymade garments would continue in the next fiscal year as the government looks to boost the shipment of clothing items.

The government has set a 5.6 per cent inflation target in the proposed budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year although the prices of essentials and other commodities are persisting at higher levels.

The government has no plans to inject capital into state-run banks as it has already taken several initiatives to put an end to this culture, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said today.