Rejaul Karim Byron

The government has decided to exit the existing $5.5 billion loan programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and move toward negotiating a new arrangement instead.

Bangladesh’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) drained about Tk 88,200 crore from the national exchequer in a single year, emerging as one of the country’s biggest fiscal risks, according to a World Bank study.

The government is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a new three-year loan programme to replace the existing arrangement, whose terms are in conflict with the ruling BNP’s election pledges.

The government officials, pensioners, and MPO-listed teachers and staff are set to get a new pay scale from July 1 after the committee led by Cabinet Secretary Nasimul Ghani recommended the rollout of the revised pay scale.

The government has created a five-year plan that aims to turn Bangladesh into a trillion-dollar economy by 2034 and create 1 crore jobs by 2030, driven by an upsurge in investment.

The government is planning to form a capital market reform commission to bring transparency and restore investor confidence, according to officials at the Ministry of Finance.

The government’s ambition to build a trillion-dollar economy by 2034 will remain out of reach without urgent reforms in banking, taxation, and business costs, as the country’s current economic structure is too weak to sustain the level of growth required, a leading economist said.

Eight projects have been identified for repurposing, and officials expect funds by June once respective ministries complete technical procedures and send proposals to the WB

Nineteen years ago, BNP finance minister M Saifur Rahman placed a national budget of Tk 69,740 crore for fiscal year 2006-07. Three governments have since come and gone, and BNP has now returned to power through a national election.

The country is not short of money for development projects. Instead, it is suffering from weak project planning, poor coordination and a culture that values expenditure over outcomes, according to AK Enamul Haque, director general (DG) of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

In an interview, Sayema Haque Bidisha, a professor at the economics department and also a former pro-vice-chancellor of Dhaka University,

Ahead of the fiscal year 2026-27 (FY27) national budget, the government faces mounting fiscal pressure amid high inflation and low investment at a time when the global geopolitical situation remains volatile, said Prof Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

Bangladesh’s next national budget should focus on strengthening economic resilience rather than increasing spending, said Zahid Hussain, former lead economist at the World Bank’s Dhaka office.

Climate budgeting in Bangladesh must become more knowledge-based and technically stronger to help the country access global climate financing more effectively, said Sharmind Neelormi, professor in the Department of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.

Debt servicing, subsidies, and electoral pledges will make the upcoming fiscal year’s budget large in both expenditure and revenue collection.

The government is set to implement the much-anticipated Padma barrage project at an initial cost of Tk 33,474 crore, aimed at reviving five major river systems and storing 2,900 million cubic metres of water in the Padma river.

Planning Division proposes Tk 3 lakh crore development budget for FY27

The Farmers’ Card, monthly honorariums for July victims, and allowances for mosque and other religious institution workers will be part of social safety net programmes from next fiscal year, as the BNP-led government forges ahead with its election pledges despite a tight fiscal space.

The social welfare ministry has drawn up an ambitious plan to implement the Family Card programme, a major electoral pledge of the new government, involving an outlay of Tk 1,34,000 crore over four years.

NBR will have to collect Tk 6,04,000cr