Govt net bank borrowing less than 10% of target

The government's net borrowing from the banking sector has not increased in February due to lower expenditure because of the snail's pace of the annual development programme implementation.

The government has borrowed Tk23,343 crore from the banking system in the first eight months (July-February) of the current fiscal year of 2021-22, a Bangladesh Bank data showed.

The government has paid Tk15,041 crore for repayment of the outstanding loans from the banks. After paying the amount, the net borrowing has become Tk8,301 crore  which is 10% of the total target.

Industry insiders said that the implementation pace of the ADP is very slow and the government has repaid most of its outstanding loans making the net outstanding loan amount low.

The government did not have any net borrowing from the banking system in July-February period in the fiscal year 2020-21.

As per the national budget document of the government, the target of total domestic borrowing has been set at Tk1,13,453.0 crore, of which Tk76,452.0 crore has been estimated to be borrowed from banking system and Tk37,001.0 crore from the non-banking domestic sources.

The governments' total bank borrowing has reached Tk2,10,416 crore since independence. On 30 June last year, the net bank borrowing balance of the government was Tk2,2,115 crore.  

A central bank official, however, said that the government borrowed Tk5,000 crore in December in the current fiscal year for primary school infrastructure development. But the governments' expenditure will go high at the end of the fiscal year as it will have to pay various outstanding bills which will escalate bank borrowing too. 

Meanwhile, according to the planning ministry data, the government has spent Tk71,532 crore to implement ADP in the first seven months which is only 30% of its target. 

The governments' net borrowing from savings certificate in the first seven months of the current fiscal year is only 38% of the total target, which is Tk32,000 crore. 

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) sources said that the revenue collection is very low this fiscal year. The NBR could collect only 46% of the total duty-tax target. It is uncertain that the NBR would be able to collect the rest amount within five months.

The NBR has collected Tk22,000 crore on average every month in the seven months of the current fiscal year. 

It has a target to collect Tk3,30,000 crore revenue this fiscal. 

The revenue authorities have collected a total amount of Tk1,53,439 crore in the first seven months of the FY2021-22.