The Jatiya Sangsad (JS) has passed the budget of Tk. 7 lakh 97 thousand crore for the fiscal year 2024-2025.
Finance Minister Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali proposed to pass the budget in the JS session on Sunday (June 30) and it was passed by voice vote of the parliament members.
Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury presided over the session.
In the session, in the presence of most of the members of the government and opposition parties, 251 cut proposals were brought against the 59 approval demands on the budget. It was decided to discuss three sanction demands (Ministry of Law, Education and Social Welfare). At the end of the discussion, the approval demands were accepted in the JS by voice vote. After that, the Finance Minister raised the proposal to pass the 'Specification Bill-2024' to approve the expenditure of a maximum of Tk. 12 lakh 41 thousand 752 crore 32 lakh 09 thousand and it was passed by voice vote.
At this time, JS leader and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina along with government and opposition parliamentarians clapped on the table and welcomed the journey of implementing the country's budget.
Earlier, the opposition Jatiya Party members of parliament Hafizuddin Ahmed and Hamidul Haque Khandokar and Independent member of JS Pankaj Nath, Abul Kalam and Md. Nasser Shahriyar Zahedi participated in the discussion on the proposal to cut the demand for approval in the proposed budget. However, those retrenchment proposals were voted down.
This year's budget is increasing by 4.6 percent compared to the last financial year 2023-24. In this budget, the revenue target is Tk. 5 lakh 41 thousand crores. The remaining Tk. two lakh 56 thousand crores will be taken as a loan. Annual Development Program (ADP) worth Tk. 265 thousand crore has already been approved.
In the new financial year, black money owners are getting an opportunity to legalize their undeclared assets without facing questions about the source of income. According to the proposed budget, irrespective of the prevailing laws of the country, no authority can raise any question if a taxpayer pays 15 per cent tax on immovable property including flats, land as well as cash. Despite strong criticism from inside and outside Parliament, the proposal was upheld.
In the new financial year, the benefit of duty-free import of cars for members of parliament is maintained. The proposed budget proposes to impose 25 per cent duty and 15 per cent VAT by cutting the duty-free facility on car imports by MPs. But to cancel the import of cars under their duty-free facility, the Presidential Order of 1973 has to be amended. Only after that the import of such cars can be taxed. But no such bill has been raised in the JS yet. As a result, the duty-free facility for MPs' car import remains intact. However, there is a policy decision to pass the bill in the future.
In the budget of the new financial year, the overall deficit has been estimated at Tk. two lakh 56 thousand crores. The government has set a target of collecting Tk. 90 thousand 700 crore from foreign sources and Tk 160 thousand 900 crore from domestic sources to meet the budget deficit. The government plans to take 1 lakh 37 thousand 500 crore rupees from the bank to meet the deficit in the next financial year's budget. Apart from the banking sector, 23 thousand 400 crore rupees have been taken from the non-banking sector. Out of this, Tk. 15 thousand 400 crore will be taken from savings certificates.
In this year's budget, government officials appointed from July 1 have an opportunity to be included in the universal pension scheme instead of post-retirement pension benefits. New recruits of autonomous and state-owned enterprises are covered under this scheme. This system will be introduced from July 1, 2025 for new recruits in other government institutions.
And the tax-free income tax limit of Tk. three and a half lakh will be maintained. The budget has set a growth target of 6.75 percent. And the target of holding inflation is 6.5 percent. In order to control inflation, the proposed budget of the next financial year has proposed to reduce the tax at source on daily commodities. For this reason, the tax rate has been reduced to one percent on the credit cards of the suppliers of daily essential food products like rice, wheat, potato, onion, corn, edible oil, salt and sugar.
Finance Minister Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali proposed a budget of Tk. seven lakh 97 thousand crore in the JS on June 6. Which is about Tk. 36 thousand crores more than the budget of the current financial year. The budget passed on Sunday will be effective from July 1 tomorrow.