Govt planning to present revised budget by February: Wahiduddin Mahmud

The interim government would announce the revised budget for the 2024-25 fiscal by February, Planning Adviser Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud said today (23 December).

"It would be better to announce it by end of January, Time has come to coordinate monetary policy, budgetary policy and annual development budget and prepare a revised budget. We are trying to do that by end of January or in February so that everyone could be benefitted," he said while briefing reporters after the ECNEC meeting at his ministry conference room.

He said once the revised budget is passed, the Bangladesh Bank will be able to implement its monetary policy, the Finance Ministry will know where to put the budget deficit, or how much foreign aid will be needed. 

The Planning Ministry will be able to plan to quickly complete the projects in its hands, said the adeviser.

He commented that if employment is not increased, the suffering of the people will not be reduced.

He noted that the revised budget is typically prepared by the end of March, coinciding with the conclusion of the third quarter.

"This budget [current budget for 2024-25 fiscal] is not prepared by us, the previous government formulated it. We want to revise this budget prior to that time [March]," he said, signaling what may be more of an emergency budget

But he said for that, the interim government needed some estimations like revenue collection from NBR and foreign aid flows.

"This will be needed to put the budget deficit at a tolerable level and revise the development budget," he said.

The adviser mentioned that the burden of coordination has come on the development budget.

"We have to keep others intact. For sake of overall stability we cannot formulate higher deficit budget."

Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud, who also oversee the education ministry, said there are so many demands from the public servants, to mitigate those there are issues like increasing salaries and allowances, and dearness allowances.

"So, it is difficult to put limit on the revenue expenditure. Therefore, we have to reduce the development budget," he said.

But he mentioned that the reduced development budget does not mean that it would affect the growth in the economy.

"For the poverty reduction and employment it does not required heavy investment locally or especially in the rural areas. It requires the development projects to provide employment and benefit the local people."

The adviser also said that the size of the budget is not important, the important thing is that the projects benefit the people, create employment and providing positive results in the livelihood of the people.

Regarding containing inflation at a tolerable level, the Adviser said that the government has been unable to reduce the inflation to a great extent.

"We have to reduce the inflation to maintain the macroeconomic stability. Remittances inflow is increasing, that is very good news. The balance of payments has returned to positive. Only inflation is yet to come down to a tolerable level."

He said that Bangladesh Bank through its contractionary monetary policy and credit policy is trying to control inflation.