The revised and supplementary budget for the fiscal year 2025-26 has been presented in the National Parliament. Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury presented the budget with priority on restructuring the country’s current economic situation, dealing with inflationary pressures and preventing waste. The total deficit in the budget is two lakh crore taka, while government expenditure has decreased by two thousand crore taka.
The Finance Minister presented the revised and supplementary budget for the fiscal year 2025-26 on Monday (June 15) on the seventh day of the second session of the 13th National Parliament.
The Finance Minister said that the government’s net expenditure in the original budget for the current fiscal year was estimated at Tk 7.90 trillion. However, due to the slow pace of implementation of the Annual Development Program (ADP) during the pre-election period, it has been proposed to reduce government expenditure by Tk 2 trillion to Tk 7.88 trillion in the revised budget. At the same time, the total deficit in the revised budget has been proposed at Tk 2 trillion, which is 3.3 percent of the country’s total GDP.
He said that reviving the economy by eliminating the global instability and the weakness of the country’s internal economic structure is one of the main priorities of the current government’s administration. Efforts are being made to reduce waste in every area of government expenditure, reduce non-priority expenditure, and ensure austerity in the administrative sector.
The Finance Minister further said that although subsidies in the electricity and fuel sectors have to be adjusted due to the global situation, the country’s social security programs have been further enhanced and expanded by providing family cards, farmer cards, and honorariums to imams, priests, and muezzins. Some adjustments have been made to the expenditure and deficit in the supplementary budget to meet the needs of these programs.
After the Finance Minister’s speech, the Speaker began the voting process on the demands for grants related to expenditures other than the proposed obligated expenditures for the fiscal year 2025-26, as per the agenda of the Parliament. According to Article 89 of the Constitution, obligated expenditures are not subject to voting even though they are discussed in Parliament.
The Speaker said that there are a total of 25 demands for approval in this year’s supplementary budget, and against these demands, 20 opposition MPs, including Rumin Farhana and Shahjahan Chowdhury, have given notices of a total of 304 retrenchment proposals. Stating that there is no opportunity for absent members to raise any retrenchment proposals, the Speaker sought everyone’s cooperation to complete the work smoothly.
Taking into account the specific time frame, the opposition party has submitted a list of proposals for retrenchment and discussion in a total of eight ministries and departments, including the Finance Department, Planning Department, Commerce Ministry, Science and Technology Ministry, Local Government Department, Water Resources Ministry, Food Ministry, and the Anti-Corruption Commission.
The Speaker said that members listed in these specific sectors will be called upon to submit layoff proposals, and other demands will be resolved through direct voting.
