Dhaka, June 30 (The Daily Star): The parliament yesterday
passed the national budget for fiscal 2014-15 without any opposition from the
Jatiya Party and independent members, a rare occurrence in the nation's
history.
The budget outlines a gross expenditure of Tk 382,340
crore and net expenditure of Tk 250,506 crore. Like every year, the defence
ministry received the highest allocation, of Tk 16,492 crore, among the 56
ministries and divisions.
The education ministry received the second highest
allocation of Tk 15,550 crore, followed by the local government division at Tk
15,468 crore and the primary and mass education ministry Tk 13,676 crore.
Some Tk 12,396 crore has been allocated to the
agriculture ministry, Tk 11,370 crore to the home ministry and Tk 11,176 crore
to the health and family welfare ministry.
The GDP growth target has been fixed at 7.3 percent, and
Finance Minister AMA Muhith said he is hopeful of achieving the figure as the
political situation has returned to normal after the January 5 polls and credit
to the private sector is rising.
Muhith said the country's budget has consistently been
the smallest among its South Asian peers. In the last several years, the size
of the budget has been increased gradually, with the upcoming fiscal year's
budget coming to 18.7 percent of GDP.
“With such a small-sized budget, a hunger- and
poverty-free middle-income country cannot be built by 2021.”