Gani Mia is a farmer with no land of his own. He grows paddy, jute and other crops in others’ fields. His story, though fictitious, is in school textbooks and etched in the minds of many. It stands true for a large number of the country’s farmers, especially the marginal ones.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday presented parts of the national budget as Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal fell sick halfway through his speech.

In a push to widen the social safety net, the government decided to include all registered differently abled people, and more marginalised and vulnerable ones under its protection.

The government has resorted to deficit financing, largely through bank borrowing and sale of high-cost savings certificates, increasing the interest payment burden on its shoulders and fuelling inflation.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday proposed doubling the subsidy for the gas sector to Tk 9,600 crore for 2019-20, from Tk 4,500 crore in the previous year.

All eyes were on fever-stricken Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal as he stepped into parliament to unveil his maiden national budget yesterday.

More than a year ago, when Mohammad Zayed graduated from a university college in the capital, his family started expecting that he would soon take over the financial responsibility.

The new budget is growth-friendly and has set ambitious goals but shied away from addressing the key challenges confronting the economy, said a number of economists in their immediate reactions.

In 2010, the government decided to construct a 128-kilometre (km) metre gauge rail track to link Chattogram with tourist town Cox’s Bazar at a cost of Tk 1,852.35 crore.

Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) has prepared a report claiming that it has removed most of the 52 substandard food items from the market across the country and filed 52 cases against the companies concerned as per the High Court directives.

THE BIG FOUR

Total budget increased by 18 percent as compared to revised budget 2018-19. Similarly, development budget increased by 22 percent as compared to revised budget as well. No doubt, this is ambitious and involves lot of challenges in implementation.

It has become a tradition for the budget to be increased every year by 17-18 percent so this year, there was no reason to expect this to change. Generally, Bangladesh’s budget has maintained a sectoral balance in its stance, giving priority to education, agriculture, infrastructure and social sector expenditures.

The cost of mobile phone usage is going up from tonight as the national board of revenue has already sent statuary regulatory order (SRO) to all mobile phone operators soon after placing the proposed national budget for 2019-20 fiscal in the parliament.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, in his budget speech, has projected the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate at 8.2 per cent in the proposed national budget for 2019-20 fiscal.

Find the pie charts for the national budget for fiscal year 2019-20 that Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has placed in the parliament.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in his budget speech in the parliament says that the government will avoid issuing statutory regulatory order (SRO) without any abnormal situation to bring transparency in the revenue management.

Steps have been taken to bring all courts of the country within the ICT network through e-judiciary process to accelerate the disposal of cases, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal says in his budget speech at the parliament.

The price of gold will go down as a reduction of duty on its import has been proposed in the budget for fiscal year 2019-20.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has suggested a number of reforms to bring back discipline in the banking sector.