Taka 99,962 crore budget for 2008-09 unveiled

DHAKA, Bangladesh, June 10 (BSS) - Adviser for Finance and Planning Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam today presented the national budget for fiscal 2008-09 with a total expenditure outlay of Taka 99,962 crore. This budget proposal presented in a radio and televised address to the nation has, among others a Taka 66,753 crore non- development expenditure and Taka 29,549 crore development expenditure including the ADP. The proposed budget is bigger by Taka 6,354 crore compared to the revised budget of Taka 93,608 for the 2007-08 fiscal. The non-development revenue expenditure in the proposed budget will be Taka 60,758 crore and expenditure for the annual development programme (ADP) has been proposed at Taka 25,600 crore. The proposed budget has an overall deficit of Taka 30,580 crore against a revenue receipt of Taka 75,728 crore. Foreign borrowing for the budget will include Taka 11,457 crore; of which an amortization to the tune of Taka 4,221 crore will be deducted to make the net borrowing at Taka 7,236 crore. Domestic borrowing will be Taka 13,498 crore. It will include non-bank borrowing at Taka 3,500 crore. On the development side, the budget has put top priority to development of agriculture, education and human resource development and water management, rural employment and safety net programme to bail out the extreme poor. The budget also appears to be business friendly to help promote domestic industry. Outlining the proposed budget, the finance adviser said the GDP growth in the current fiscal 2007-08 would be 6.2 percent despite having severe external and internals shocks that the economy witnessed in the current fiscal year. He, however, hoped that the GDP growth would increase to 6.5 percent target during the forthcoming budget year. "We have been relentlessly striving to establish a solid foundation of an economy based on equality and fairness and free from corruption and poverty," Mirza Azizul Islam said unveiling the budget while referring to various domestic and external shocks which have left negative impact on growth. The country had witnessed two successive floods and a devastating cyclone within six months, he said adding the surging prices of petroleum products and food items in the global market affected the country all the more during this time triggering inflation.