Parliament gets Tk335.34cr budget for FY21

The Parliament Secretariat Commission has approved a Tk335.34 crore budget for the national parliament to spend on its development and non-development expenditures for the fiscal year 2020-2021.

The approval was given at the 31st meeting of the commission held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban on Monday with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

The budget is 3.88 percent higher than that of the outgoing fiscal year, said a Parliament Secretariat handout.

The meeting also approved a Tk358.81 crore estimated budget for the FY2021-22 and cleared the revised budget of the outgoing financial year.

Commission Members Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq attended the meeting, where Chief Whip Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury joined on a special invitation.

The meeting elaborately discussed deployment of two double cabin pick-up vans for the police protection of the deputy speaker and the chief whip, inducting one ambulance received from the health directorate and creating 11 new posts in different divisions under the Parliament Secretariat.

Besides, the commission recommended amendment to the Parliament Secretariat Officer and Employee Recruitment Rules 1994, approved supplying of 40-inch LED televisions instead of 21-inch ones at the offices of the chairmen of different parliamentary standing committees.

It also recommended increase in per head allocation and number for snacks of coordination meeting of the Parliament Secretariat and session preparation meetings, strengthening security for the Parliament House, its repairing and overall development.

At the outset, the meeting discussed the implementation progress of the decisions taken at the 30th meeting of the commission.