Budget to be placed Thursday

Info, documents to go online
Finance Minister AMA Muhith would place the Awami League-led grand-alliance government’s maiden budget in parliament on Thursday at 3pm amid wide publicity of all its information and documents online and offline.
An official announcement yesterday said all the information and important documents of the new budget would be released on websites and supplied from the Jatiya Sangsad to make it “more participatory”.
The budget speech, its summary and annual financial statement, grants and demands for allocation (development, non-development and integrated), midterm budget structure, supplementary financial statement, economic survey 2009, ‘public-private partnership: new enthusiasm for investment effort’ and programmes of four ministries in women development and establishing their rights will be put on the websites and also be supplied from parliament simultaneously the same day.
People or organisations can read and download the information and documents of the new budget logging into www.mof.gov.bd .
They can also express their opinions and recommendations about the budget through filling up the feedback form from the website, which will be considered and made effective after approval of the budget by the parliament.
Government websites www.nbr-bd.org, www.plancomm.gov.bd, www.imed.gov.bd, www.bdpressinform.org, www.pmo.gov.bd, www.bangladesh.gov.bd and private website www.bdnews24.com will be linked with the Finance Ministry’s website “for ensuring massive participation”.
The government is expecting that the budget finalisation process will be “more transparent and accountable and public welfare-oriented with the participation of all”.
Finance Minister Muhith has already disclosed that the budget 2009-2010, with the theme slogan ‘Wind of Change’, envisages that the revenue collection by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) for the next year’s budget would not be less than Tk 60,000 crore while the total revenue budget would be Tk 80,000 crore.
In the meantime, the cabinet has approved a Tk 30,500 crore Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the coming year.
Revenue and development budgets combined, the total budgetary size will be over one-hundred-thousand-crore taka-the highest ever allocation of funds for running the country for a year. 
 
Courtesy of The Independent