Environment ministry budget increases by 30%

The new allocated budget for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is Tk2,130 crore, which is a 30% increase from the previous fiscal year.

The budget documents show that the previous allocation for FY 2023-24 was Tk1,639 crore and for the revised budget, it is Tk2,071 crore.

For FY 2024-25, the environment ministry gets a total of Tk2,131 crore, which is only 0.27% of the total national budget. 

An analysis of the last few years' budget for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has shown that the budget allocation for the fiscal year 2023-24 was Tk1,639 crore, while the amount in the previous fiscal year 2022-23 was Tk1,501 crore.

The budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 was Tk1,221 crore, which is Tk25 crore less than the previous fiscal year 2020-21 of Tk1,246 crore.

In the financial year 2016-17, the budget allocation was Tk1,033 crore. In FY 2017-18, it was Tk1,119 crore. However, in the financial year 2018-19, the allocation was increased by Tk150 crore to Tk1,269 crore. In the financial year 2019-20, the allocation was Tk1,495 crore.

At the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, this year's Annual Development Programme budget in FY 2024-25 is Tk1,403 crore. Last fiscal year's budget was Tk851 crore and revised budget is Tk1,309 crore. This year the annual development programme budget is increased by around 65%.

Environmentalists claim that the national budget size increased more than 4-5 times but the Environment, Forest and Climate Change ministry is now negligible.

In FY 2011-12 the total national budget was Tk1,63,589 crore and now this budget has increased by around 4.87 times. But the environment ministry budget increased only 2.23 times.

In FY 2011-12 the Ministry of Environment and Forest budget was Tk955 crore.

In the total budget speech, "climate change" was mentioned 28 times, and "environment" was mentioned 40 times, while "forest" was mentioned only 4 times.

Environmentalist and Centre for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (CAPS) Chairman Prof Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder told The Business Standard, "In the last 14 years, the core budget of the country has increased almost fivefold, but the environment budget has not seen a corresponding increase. This sector is still being neglected." 

Kamruzzaman Majumder, also the join secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA), said, "Global climate change has put the environment in dire straits, yet the national budget does not reflect this urgency. Public health is constantly under threat due to climate change and environmental damage. Considering these issues, the Ministry of Environment should have been prioritised among the top ministries in the government. Unfortunately, this priority was not given."

The environmentalist also suggested that the government could revise the environmental budget, increasing it to at least Tk4,000-5,000 crore.