Rejaul Karim Byron

The government has set a target to mobilise Tk 17,000 crore in budget support from development partners in fiscal 2020-21 to meet its additional financing need owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Bangladesh’s stimulus packages aimed at mitigating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic are one of the highest among a selective group of countries in Asia, according to a government paper.

The social safety net programmes (SSNPs) for the next fiscal year have largely focused on expanding the coverage of the existing schemes amid calls to make them better targeted, increase allocation and include the new poor amid the raging coronavirus pandemic.

The national and global lockdown measures aimed at battling the Covid-19 pandemic have taken their toll on Bangladesh’s industrial production, obliterating tens of thousands of jobs, incomes and demand.

Bangladesh’s economic growth would weaken further to 1.6 percent in the current fiscal year, the World Bank said yesterday as it revised its prospects revealing a far deeper impact of the coronavirus pandemic than it had initially thought.

One can only hope, is what one would remark once learning of Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal’s revenue target for the upcoming fiscal year, due to begin from July 1.

The health ministry will not see a significant rise in allocation in the upcoming budget amid Covid-19 pandemic mainly due to its lack of capacity to utilise funds, say planning ministry officials.

The government may allocate Tk 95,155 crore for the safety net programmes in the next fiscal year as it looks to broaden the number of beneficiaries to support those who are struggling to make ends meet after the coronavirus outbreak.

The government may grant full amnesty to the people if they invest their untaxed money, also known as black money, as it looks to give a boost to the economy reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are likely to get a respite from paying turnover tax in the next fiscal year as the government looks to support businesses that suffered sales losses owing to the more than two-month-long shutdown.

Thanks to increased domestic borrowing in recent years, the government’s interest payments will rise by 14 percent in the coming fiscal year.

Most of the mega development projects were already behind schedule before the pandemic. Then came several months of shutdown, deteriorating the situation to a great extent.

The next budget is likely to see an increase in allocation for food purchase amid coronavirus crisis as the government plans to earmark Tk 18,197 crore to buy 32.11 lakh tonnes of foodgrains for distribution among the poor and low-income groups.

Bangladesh has pledged to use the emergency assistance from the International Monetary Fund transparently and effectively, ensure fiscal discipline and prioritising addressing banking sector problems as it secured $732 million from the crisis lender to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

Between a rock and a hard place is where Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal finds himself in as he is set to unveil his second budget on June 11.

The government will set up isolation and critical care units in district hospitals all over the country as part of its efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Two projects worth Tk 2,492 crore chalked out as part of the government’s plan to fight the pandemic will be tabled in today’s meeting of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec).

Inflation fell 61 basis points to 5.35 per cent in May from a month earlier owing to a drastic fall in food prices caused by a collapse in demand because of the coronavirus pandemic.

That the subsidy expenditure would go up next fiscal year as the government scrambles to keep the pandemic-induced recession from undoing decades of progress in alleviating poverty and elevating its citizens into the middle-class -- was a given.

The optics look perfect. The global lender of last resort coming to the rescue of a not-too-well-endowed country struggling with the economic impact of the pandemic with no strings attached.