When the budget of fiscal year 2022-23 was announced in June last year, then the trouble of Covid-19 was not fully ended yet, but the commodity price was more or less in tolerable level. Then, the price of two kg of flour was Tk 70-75, the thick rice was Tk 40, which was now Tk 140 and Tk 50-55 respectively. In the meantime, the price of gas and electricity were also increased, and as a result the cost of agriculture and industrial production was also increased.

Meanwhile, the Russia-Ukraine war affected badly the price of foods and industrial products. In a nutshell, the economy of Bangladesh has been passing a hard time.  In this circumstance, the government wants to convey good message to the people ahead of upcoming national election. They want to reflect their intention in the upcoming budget of 2023-24.

According to the sources, National Board of Revenue (NbR) has already started pre-budget discussions with various relevant parties. The finance division will also start pre-budget in this month. The upcoming budget, scheduled to be announced in this July, will mainly consist of planning regarding election.

The continuous price hike of commodities, electricity and energy, and transportation has increased the expense of living of the people a few times. Especially, the people of the capital Dhaka has been suffering immensely due to the escalated expense of living. The inflation also touched new record. Besides, the lack of proper management and distribution, the price of the commodities increased abnormally. Almost all the indexes of macro economy are in negative phase. Hence, in this circumstance, the government wants to provide some relief to the people by a pro-people budget.

Finance department officials said the government wants to convey some good messages to the common people in the budget irrespective of the budget figure. Especially, they want to keep the price of goods under control. No new burden of taxes will be on the shoulders of the people. However, the government is preparing to increase the prices of all types of energy and services including gas, electricity, and water to reduce the budget deficit and subsidies. It will increase the cost of living of people. But the government wants to take some initiatives in the upcoming budget - as a result of which the cost of living will not increase uncontrollably. Efforts will be made to keep the price of goods within reach. The officials of the finance department are working on budget formulation keeping in mind all the issues. The finance minister has already said that this year's budget will be a public welfare budget. A budget will be given which would benefit everyone.

According to the sources, this will be the last budget of the current government ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. The current government will not be able to implement this budget in full as next year the new government will come through elections. According to that, half of the fiscal year will be implemented by the current government and the new government in the next six months. That is also being looked at with importance. Keeping these ideas in mind, the allocation of funds in the next budget is being arranged. Emphasize will be given to the sectors whose benefits are directly related to voter satisfaction; hence, it’s being decided to increase the allocation in those sectors in next budget, especially in the field of social security. As the allocation has been announced to increase compared to the last financial year, the scope of beneficiaries is also being expanded. Attention is also being paid to some other sectors of the budget that can attract voters. Apart from this, there will be a new outline in the next budget to continue the recovery process from the impact of Russia-Ukraine war on the overall economy of the country after the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the analysts, in the upcoming 2023-24 budget, the challenges that have to be faced are: increasing private investment, creating new jobs, because the number of unemployed people in the country has increased a lot in the last few years. Subsidy must be secured as well as budget deficit should be reduced. Moreover, inflation has to be controlled to bring the price of commodities to a tolerable level.

Similarly, a stable and strong reserve system should be developed for proper management of foreign exchange. Apart from this, the government has to establish good governance in this sector to restore stability in the declining banking sector. This is also a big challenge for the government in this ‘election-budget,’ the advisor of former caretaker government Hossain Zillur Rahman said.

@The report was published in Bengali on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on March 14 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque