Quarter of budget to go to 5 ministries

About one-fourth of the upcoming fiscal year’s budget will go towards five ministries and divisions including health, education and defence, with a significant portion kept as block allocations to undertake projects in line with the BNP’s electoral pledges.

In fiscal 2026–27, the Secondary and Higher Education Division, Health Services Division, Local Government Division, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Primary and Mass Education may receive allocations of Tk 221,224 crore, which is about 24 percent of the proposed budget.

The Secondary and Higher Education Division will receive the highest allocation of Tk 50,302 crore, with Tk 11,500 crore kept as block allocation in its development budget.

The Health Services Division will get Tk 43,189 crore, with Tk 20,805 crore as block allocation.

The Local Government Division’s allocation is Tk 43,130 crore, with Tk 7,562 crore as block allocation.

The defence ministry will get Tk 42,462 crore.

The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education will receive Tk 42,145 crore, with Tk 16,299 crore as block allocation.

The reason for the block allocation is that the government did not get sufficient time to prepare projects in line with its electoral pledges, The Daily Star has learnt from finance ministry officials involved with the proceedings.

“Time is needed to design suitable projects that would truly improve the quality of education and health. For this reason, the proposal for block allocations was made,” said one of the officials.

However, excessive block allocations could lead to a breach of budget discipline. At times, other ministries may exert pressure to spend from block allocations through influence.

Ultimately, block allocations were kept against ministries or divisions for unapproved projects.

In the Tk 300,000 crore annual development programme (ADP), Tk 100,000 crore has been kept for unapproved projects and programmes, with Tk 66,000 crore reserved for education, health and local government.

But at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting last month, where next fiscal year’s ADP was approved, two decisions were taken to ensure that funds from one sector are not spent in another.

Allocations can be reallocated among ongoing projects without changing the total allocation within the same ministry or division. However, funds cannot be transferred or reallocated from one ministry to another.

Inter-sectoral reallocations within the approved ADP will not be allowed.

At the NEC meeting, a list of 1,277 unapproved projects was approved for inclusion in next fiscal year’s ADP.

From this list, projects aligned with the government’s electoral manifesto will be incorporated into the ADP with allocations after approval by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).

New projects will be taken to fulfil promises made by the Members of Parliament for the development of their constituencies, said planning ministry officials. These project proposals will be scrutinised and then included in the ADP with allocations.

Block allocations have also been kept for others such as the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture.

In addition, Tk 20,000 crore has been reserved for development assistance under special needs and Tk 17,000 crore for social development assistance under special needs.

Of the Tk 17,000 crore, Tk 14,500 crore has been allocated to the Ministry of Social Welfare for the Family Card programme, Tk 1,400 crore to the Ministry of Agriculture for the Farmers’ Card programme, and Tk 1,100 crore to the Ministry of Religious Affairs for honorariums to imams of mosques and individuals serving religious institutions.

Since the beneficiaries of the programmes have not yet been identified, the allocations have been kept as block allocations.