The government has planned to borrow Tk 73,828 crore from banking and non-banking sectors in the coming fiscal year beginning in July. Tk 48,000 crore will come from the banking sector while the non-banking sector will contribute the rest Tk 25,828 crore.
According to an official at the financial ministry, the government will opt for the increased borrowing aiming to avoid extra tax burden on people ahead of the next general election scheduled to be held in 2019.
The upcoming budget, which is set to have a wider deficit, will be the last full-fledged budget for the Awami-League-led grand alliance government in the present term as the 2018-'19 budget will be a partial one. "So, the government wants to make the mass people happy in various ways though this budget," the official added.
The target of borrowing amount was Tk 38,523 crore from the banking sector in the 2015-16 fiscal as against Tk 31,221 crore in 2014-15 fiscal. According to sources at the finance ministry, the government is estimating the GDP growth for the 2017-18 fiscal at 7.4 percent.
They said an additional amount of Tk 6,820 crore will be needed for the salaries and allowances of the public servants. The estimated expenditure for this sector has been set at Tk 57,420 crore.Besides, the target for subsidy expenditure has been set at Tk 27,500 crore which is 1.2 percent of the GDP for the upcoming budget of 2017-18 fiscal.
Meanwhile, the government has approved Tk 153,331 crore outlay for next fiscal year's Annual Development Program, which is 39 percent higher than the current year's.The government's own fund contribution has been raised 23.98 percent to Tk 96,331 crore and the share of foreign fund 73.32 percent to Tk 57,000 crore.
The state-owned enterprises will get Tk 10,753 crore, where the amount of foreign aid will account for more than Tk 3,000 crore. At present, more than $32 billion of foreign aid remains idle in the pipeline.
Multilateral and bi-lateral development partners including Japan, India, China and Russia have committed to financing a number of mega projects against which a big amount is expected to be released in the upcoming fiscal year, said a planning ministry official.
Russia will provide about $12 billion for the Rooppur nuclear power plant project, more than $1 billion or Tk 8,275 crore of which is expected to be used during next fiscal year.The power sector will get Tk 21,309 crore next fiscal year, Tk 11,903 crore, or $1.49 billion, of which will be project aid.
Some $250 million, or Tk 2,000 crore, of foreign aid allocation has been made available for the Matarbari coal-based power plant. China has committed about $5 billion for the Padma Rail Link project and the Karnaphuli tunnel construction project.
The government has a target to open the Padma Bridge in 2018. The finance ministry has written letters to China to approve the foreign assistance by this year. Total allocation for Padma Rail Link project in the next budget is Tk 7,609 crore. Of the sum, Tk 4,949 crore, or $618 million, will come from Chinese assistance.
From Chinese assistance, foreign aid of Tk 1,008 crore, or $126 million, has been allocated for the Karnaphuli tunnel.
About Tk 3,425 crore will be allocated to the metro rail project in next year's budget, of which Tk 2,700 is foreign aid.
A big amount of disbursement from India's $3 billion line of credit may be made in the upcoming fiscal year, according to planning ministry officials.
Besides, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have committed to increasing their assistance, a finance ministry official said.
Next fiscal year, the transport sector will get the highest allocation of 26.77 percent of the total ADP, followed by power 12.30 percent, education 10.87 percent, science, information and communication technology 9.42 percent, rural development institutions 8.58 percent, health 6.65 percent and agriculture 3.92 percent.
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