ativeBudget Analysis:
The present Budget of Bangladesh for the year FY14-15 has been presented at a time when the Bangladeshi economy is heading towards a high growth trajectory, albeit certain challenges such as elevated inflation, high Current Account Deficit (CAD), and moderating growth of industrial production, lack of capital investment, poor level of power & energy, low level of liquidity, etc. At the current juncture, what was required from the Budget was to address the issue of inflation and support growth momentum, while maintaining the focus on fiscal consolidation and continuing ahead on the reform agenda. Increased allocation of planned resources towards infrastructure projects along with the proposals to direct foreign funds and private saving towards infrastructure sector will unlock much of the growth potential of the sector.
Although the continued force on infrastructure along with power & energy, agriculture and education sectors is expected to provide significant impetus to economic growth in the medium-term, measures to control inflation in the immediate future were missing in the budget announcements.
On the fiscal deficit front, the budgeted fiscal deficit is 5% of GDP for FY14-15. This indicates government will face lot of trouble in near future. This can be reduced through increasing Tax revenue, reduce debt service liability and etc.
Budgeted Expenditure for FY14-15
For FY14-15, total expenditure is budgeted to increase by 15.9% to 250,506 Crore Taka as compared to the revised estimates (RE) for FY13-14. The development expenditure, however, is budgeted to register a great increase compared to the revised estimates of FY13-14; the expenditure on this front is slated to increase by 32.50%.
Budgeted Revenue for FY14-15
For FY14-15, total income is budgeted to increase by 16.80% to 182,954 Crore Taka as compared to the revised