Upcoming budget to be practical-based, implementable, time befitting: Adviser Salehuddin

The forthcoming national budget for FY26 would be time-befitting and practical-based, having implementable approaches since the interim government has considered all the macroeconomic and social issues while framing the budget, Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed has said.

"I won't say this budget [FY26] is small, but it will definitely be implementable and time befitting. It will be time befitting as issues like inflation, trade, foreign currency reserves, facilitating trade, commerce and businesses, harnessing revenue mobilisation are being considered. We're considering all these issues and thus making the budget as practical-based," he said.

The adviser said this in an interview with the BSS at his office while shedding light on the salient features of the upcoming national budget, which would also be the first of its kind for the interim government, headed by Nobel laureate Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus.

Since the Jatiya Sangsad is not in place now, the finance adviser would present the budget via televised speech, to be formalised through a presidential ordinance.

Officials familiar with the budget formulation process said that the government is likely to deliver a Tk7,90,000 crore national budget for FY26 which would be Tk7,000 crore smaller than the original budget size for the current fiscal year.

This will mark the first televised budget speech of the interim government since the fiscal year 2007–08, when former caretaker government Adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam delivered two budgets via national broadcast.

The finance adviser said the ensuing budget, once announced, can be considered as implementable as the government would not take any mega project, but would make necessary allocations in harnessing power and energy, physical infrastructures, education, agriculture and health sectors.

"We'll not take any monument project or those projects which have no benefits," he added.

Salehuddin alleged that a lot of projects were undertaken in the past to facilitate a small number of people, but such kind of projects would not be undertaken anymore. "We want to reach the benefits of development to all … it may not reach all equally, but it will reach. It won't reach to people in a one-sided manner like in the past … we're trying to deliver our best," he said. 

When asked about the budget size, he said it would not remain static considering the outgoing budget. "Although the size won't be huge, the ADP will be a bit less, while the budget deficit will not exceed 4% of the GDP, and we'll contain it below 4%,"

The finance adviser went on saying, "We'll focus more on mobilising resources from the internal sources than the external sources. But, we've already got a lot of commitments from the development partners side by side we'll get budget support from the World Bank, ADB alongside the support from IMF's loan package."

Mentioning that the government would not put additional burden on its loan portfolio considering the issue of debt sustainability, he said the government would ensure optimum utilisation of fund both local and foreign ones. "We don't want misuse of fund to happen as it will reduce the burden on loans and tax and thus help to gain maximum benefits," he said.

Salehuddin said the budget size would not become small considering the absolute size as price and cost are being increased, keeping pace with the changing context and time, while the project cost is also being increased.

"It will not be a huge expansionary budget… there would not be a quantum jump in the budget," he said, adding that there would be no unnecessary expenditure.

The finance adviser, putting utmost importance on ensuring value for money said that austerity would be pursued, but that does not mean like moving forward without having meals.

"We'll ensure 'value for money', we will ensure timely completion of projects to avert time and cost overruns…we've cut allocations many of our development projects in the outgoing year," he added.

When asked whether this government would get one year to fully implement this budget, the finance adviser said that the national budget could never be for a six-month time or for a nine-month time.

But, there is a constitutional obligation that a budget would have one-year timeframe for implementing it although the monetary policy could be for a six-month timeframe since there is no constitutional obligation.

"If we can't get one-year timeframe for implementing it fully, then the successive government will implement it. They can further modify it … but it's not possible to make complete departure from what we'll deliver," he said.