Ensuring food security top priority for govt, says Finance adviser in budget speech

Ensuring food security remains one of the key priorities for the government, said Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed during his budget speech for the fiscal year 2025–26, delivered at 3pm today.

In the absence of an active parliament, this year's budget speech is being broadcast simultaneously on state-run BTV and private media outlets.

Salehuddin said that unexpected floods last year led to lower-than-expected Aus and Aman rice production, causing a shortfall in food grain reserves. 

To address this, the government decided to import 9 lakh tonnes of rice and 7 lakh tonnes of wheat. Of this, 8.5 lakh tonnes of rice and 2 lakh tonnes of wheat have already been imported, he said.

To support agricultural production, the government is providing subsidies on fertilisers and other essential inputs while ensuring fair prices for farmers at the field level. Additionally, in light of the importance of food security, buffer stocks of fertilisers have been increased.

On the energy front, Salehuddin stressed the need to ensure an adequate and affordable energy supply to maintain economic momentum and improve citizens' living standards. 

In view of high inflation, he said the government has decided not to raise electricity prices for the time being. To gradually reduce subsidies in the power sector, a plan has been adopted to cut overall electricity production costs by 10%.

He further stated that the government is reviewing power purchase agreements and has initiated energy audits to lower generation expenses. Plans are also in place to supply 648 million cubic feet of gas per day from domestic sources by the end of this year and to extract an additional 1,500 million cubic feet per day by 2028 from local wells.

The finance adviser also said that a continued rise in exports compared to imports has steadily improved the current account balance, which stood at  $0.66 billion as of March 2025. 

However, due to the government's austerity measures, the implementation of development projects has slowed, leading to delays in the disbursement of pledged foreign loans, he said.

Despite this, Salehuddin added that the government expects to receive around $3.6 billion in budget support from various development partners by June of this year.