Rejaul Karim Byron

The government is not keeping a separate allocation for vaccines in the next fiscal year’s budget as it pulls back from vaccine procurement given the high inoculation rate and low infection rates.

Foreign assistance disbursement jumped 58 per cent in the current fiscal year’s July-April period thanks to spending for vaccination, one-time budget support and implementation of mega projects, including that of the Russia-funded Rooppur nuclear power plant. 

Bank accounts with upwards of Tk 1 crore in balance are set to face a higher excise duty next fiscal year as the government looks to collect more taxes from the relatively well-off to get close to the lofty revenue collection target.

Wishful thinking -- is what best describes the maiden tax amnesty campaign the government is planning to lure money back home next fiscal year.

There is bad news for consumers of imported luxury items: they will get dearer thanks to the tax measures the National Board of Revenue is preparing for the new fiscal year that begins on July 1.

Work for the Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway project is yet to formally start but the deadline for the mega project is to expire in just over a month.

The government is committed to using the long-overdue National Household Database (NHD) from the next fiscal year to better target the social safety net programmes, in a development that can infuse dynamism in the flat scheme.

The government has ramped up its measures to contain the pressure on foreign currency reserves and inflation, drafting an action plan to discourage non-essential imports and bring relief to the poor and the vulnerable from the spiralling cost of living.

Black money holders appear to have lost the appetite to legalise their undisclosed wealth if the tax collected from this source in the first nine months of the fiscal year is any indication.

When thinking outside the box was needed, the government opted for the tried-and-tested method.

Wishy-washy -- is what best describes the government’s stance on scaling up its narrow revenue base, which is posing to become the Achilles’ heel to Bangladesh’s growth aspirations.

The country will have to import fertiliser at higher prices from the international market in the wake of the global price hike due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Pragmatism was the order of the day when the finance division sat down to draft the development budget for fiscal 2021-22.

Strange times are these in which we live when record subsidy allocation may still come short of what is needed.

The government finally raised its guard against the dwindling dollar reserves, putting its employees’ foreign tours on hold and deferring projects that require much imports.

There are bright sparks in all corners of the economy, according to the provisional GDP figures for fiscal 2021-22, which do not show a hint of a pandemic hangover when others are still plodding along.

It appears normal service will resume with fiscal 2022-23’s budget, which will see the return of double-digit growth in size -- a practice introduced by former finance minister AMA Muhith.

Every year, the budget gets bigger, and like clockwork, gets revised down -- much. But not this year.

When Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina defiantly announced in 2012 that the Padma bridge would be built after the World Bank pulled out of the project, her gumption was not irrational.

At least 100 agriculture ministry officials will participate in phases in a six-month international horticulture exhibition in the Netherlands, even though the government had asked to abandon all routine tours except those involving emergencies.