Tk35,374 crore proposed for agri, food, fisheries and livestock sector in budget FY2024

The Ministry of Finance has proposed to allocate Tk35,374 crore for the agriculture sector (agriculture, food and fisheries and livestock) in the FY2023-24 budget, as Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presented the national budget at the Jatiya Sangsad today. 

Budget allocation for the agriculture sector was Tk33,698 crore in FY2022-23.

"Agriculture is our priority sector. It is proposed to keep the existing duty rates unchanged on the import of the main inputs of the agricultural sector, especially fertilisers, seeds, pesticides etc. and on the staple food items, and on the import of other daily commodities," the finance minister said while placing the budget. 

The government has proposed to allocate Tk25,122 crore for the agriculture ministry for FY2024, which was Tk24,224 crore in FY2023.

"In the current financial year, the government had to pay a large amount of subsidy for buying fertilisers from the international market at higher prices. That is why the allocation for the Ministry of Agriculture in the revised budget has increased to Tk33,810 crores. At the beginning of this year, the subsidy allocation was Tk9,500 crore," the finance minister said.

However, a move has been proposed in the budget to protect agro-processing as an industry.

The duty rate on imports of processed cashew nuts by the industry has increased from 15.23% to 43%.

Besides, proposals have been made to waive the advance tax on the import of rice transplanters, dryers, potato planters and prayer machines.

"Bangladesh has become self-sufficient in fish production following the implementation of specific programmes for the production and management of inland open water bodies, closed water bodies and extended marine water bodies. It should be noted that Bangladesh ranks 3rd in fish production in inland open reservoirs and 5th in closed reservoirs. Besides, Bangladesh ranked 8th and 11th in the production of speciality marine and coastal crustaceans and finfish respectively. Besides, Bangladesh is the 1st among 11 countries producing Hilsa in the world; Bangladesh ranks 4th in the world and 3rd in Asia in Tilapia production," the minister added.

The government has introduced a plan for the conservation of endangered fish through artificial breeding, the development of fish species through qualitative research, the development of commercially important fish vaccines using molecular biology, the development of hatchery management using nanotechnology, the modernisation of marine fisheries resource extraction, preservation and processing, he further said. 

"We have adopted an action plan to build a smart livestock sector and to double the production through disease control of cattle and poultry. Thanks to the persistent efforts of the government, Bangladesh has achieved self-sufficiency in meat and egg production and notable progress has been made in milk production," AHM Mustafa Kamal said. 

He said the sacrificial animal market has become self-sustaining, with the demand for sacrificial animals being met from 66 domestic sources.

"In FY2023-24, our target is to increase the daily per capita availability of domestically produced milk to 236gm, to produce 46 lakh levels of semen in cattle breed development and conservation to artificially inseminate 42 lakh cows/calves across the country, to breed 41.5 lakh chickens in government poultry farms and to distribute at subsidised prices," Mustafa Kamal further said.

With a focus on inflation, job creation, the fourth industrial revolution and "Smart Bangladesh", Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday (1 June) placed before the Jatiya Sangsad a Tk7.61 lakh crore National Budget for the fiscal year 2023-24.

This will be the largest budget for Bangladesh, a long way from the first budget of Tk786 crore budget placed by Tajuddin Ahmed for the FY1972-23.

The latest budget is 12.34% bigger than the last one, which was originally proposed to be Tk6,78,064 crore. This was the last budget of the present Awami League government's five-year term.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal delivered his budget speech with the title "Unnayner Derdoshok: Smart Bangladesher Abhimukhe."

The budget was prepared with an emphasis on ensuring people's employment through business expansion.