Dhaka – Parliament on Thursday approved the national budget for the next fiscal year beginning in July 1 aiming at higher economic growth towards a developed Bangladesh by the year 2041.

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith placed the budget, which he proposed in the House on June 2 outlaying an expenditure of nearly Tk 3.41 trillion for the new fiscal, seeking passage after a few amendments to his proposal.

The lawmakers voted ‘yes’ to approve the national fiscal measures that targeted a 7.2 per percent growth.

With adoption of the Appropriation Bill-2016 by voice votes, concerned ministers placed 55 demands while the main opposition party Jatiyo Party and independent lawmakers brought 420 cut motions to clear the legal basis.

The demands were approved in the House by voice votes.

Out of the total, some six demands were discussed by the opposition bench and independent lawmakers. Later the cut motions were rejected by voice votes.

Bangladesh is now on the wheels of achieving the middle income status by 2021 in line with vision-2021 drafted by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The finance minister moved the appropriation bill seeking budgetary allocations for meeting development and non-development expenditures of various ministries and the government.

The JS passed the Finance Bill-2016 Wednesday with some changes to the tax-duty proposals. With the adoption of the Finance Bill-2016 and the Appropriation Bill-2016 Thursday, the process of the JS passing the national budget for FY 2016-2017 has been completed, according to state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha news agency.

Leader of the House and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Begum Raushan Ershad, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, ministers, 237 treasury, opposition benches and independent members took part in the discussion for 59 hours and 14 minutes on the budget for FY 2016-17.

Five opposition and four treasury bench members also discussed for 1 hour and 36 minutes on the supplementary budget for FY 2015-16 in 20 working days from June 6.

The overall budget deficit has been estimated at Taka 97 thousand 853 crore excluding grants, which is 5 percent of the GDP. Of the amount, Taka 36 thousand 305 crore will come from the external sources, which is 1.9 percent of the GDP and Taka 61 thousand 548 crore from the domestic sources, which is 3.1 percent of the GDP.

Of the domestic financing, Taka 38 thousand 938 crore will come from the banking system, which is 2 percent of the GDP and Taka 22 thousand 610 crore from savings certificate and other non-banking sources.

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