The Parliament, on Sunday, passed the Tk. 222,490 crore budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2013, amid opposition boycott over the Speaker’s decision of not allowing them to discuss their cut-motions against the demand for grants, by two ministries. The process of the passage of the budget, the final one from the present government, was completed through the approval of the Appropriation Bill, 2013, on Sunday, and the Finance Bill, 2013, on Saturday night. The budget, placed by finance minister AMA Muhith, on June 6, provides the highest allocation to the defence ministry, at Tk. 14,444 crore.
LGED and cooperative ministry, and the education ministry, got the second- and third-highest allocations with Tk. 14,045 crore and Tk. 13,163 crore.
Communication ministry gets Tk. 12,500 crore; agriculture ministry, Tk. 12,270 crore; primary education ministry, Tk. 11,930 crore; energy ministry, Tk. 11,351 crore; home ministry, Tk. 9,578 crore; and health ministry, Tk. 9,470 crore.
The budget was passed, following a month-long lively discussion by both the treasury and the opposition, in parliament.
During discussions on the budget, the opposition was sceptical about the implementation capacity of this huge budget, and said that the proposed GDP growth rate of 7.2 per cent would not be achieved, as the rate of investment is much lower than the required rate.
About 1,023 cut-motions were proposed by 20 opposition lawmakers, but they spoke on the cut-motions on five demands for grant. The cut-motions were rejected by voice vote.
Ministers from different ministries placed their proposals for expenditure through 56 demands for grant, which were passed by voice vote.
But, around 2.30 pm, speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury gave a ruling saying that, due to time constraint, she had to scrap the discussions on the cut-motions against the demands for grants of the two ministry.
Then, senior BNP lawmaker MK Anwar and former speaker, barrister Jamir Uddin Sircar, took the floor and requested the speaker to allow the opposition lawmakers to discuss on the cut-motions.
They argued that since they had already discussed on the cut-motions on the demands for grants by five ministries, the speaker should allow them to discuss on the rest of the two ministries, as there was enough time in hand.
“When I was the speaker, I had presided over the House, up to 11 pm, to allow the discussions,” Sircar said.
Then, AL lawmakers Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, chief whip Abdus Shahid, and Tofael Ahmed, took the floor, and urged the speaker to stick to her ruling.
After this unscheduled debate, just prior to the passage of the budget, the speaker ruled that she would not allow any more discussion on the cut-motions, prompting the opposition members to stage a walk-out.
Before the passage of the budget, the finance minister said that, presently, the country’s banking sector is more vibrant than before. He also expressed his sheer optimism in implementing the budget.
The budget has a target to bring down inflation to 7 per cent.
In the budget for fiscal year 2013-14, expenditure for the Annual Development Programme (ADP) has been estimated at Tk. 65,870 crore.
The revenue income in the budget has been targeted at Tk. 174,129 crore, of which, Tk. 136,090 crore will come as NBR tax revenue, Tk. 5,129 from non-NBR sources, while Tk. 25,240 crore will be collected as non-tax revenue.
The total deficit is Tk. 55,032 crore, and, of the total amount, Tk. 21,068 crore will come from foreign sources, while Tk. 33,964 crore from domestic sources, Tk. 25,993 crore from the banking system, and Tk. 7,971 crore from savings certificates.
The power and energy sector got Tk. 11,343 crore, to improve power generation. The agriculture sector got Tk. 17,477 crore, development and non-development budgets combined. Tk. 12,635 crore has been allocated for social safety net and welfare, while Tk. 14,475 crore for defence.
Leader of the House and Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Begum Khaleda Zia, finance minister AMA Muhith, ministers, 221 treasury and opposition bench members, and the only independent member, took part in about 61 hours 13 minutes of budget discussion, over 15 working days from June 11.
-With The Independent input
