Budget outlay slashed by Tk30,535cr

The government is downsizing this fiscal year’s budget outlay by 10.35% as development funds could not be utilised by authorities concerned, ABC News Reports has learned from Finance Division documents.

The revised budget outlay would be Tk264,565 crore, down by Tk30,535 crore from the original Tk295,100 crore budget outlay.

In 2014-15 fiscal year, the revised budget outlay was downsized by 4.33% compared to its previous year.

Senior Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed told ABC News Reports that Finance Minister AMA Muhith would place the revised budget outlay to the current parliament session on May 2.

One of the major issues for downsizing was the reduction of revenue collection by Tk26,370 crore from the actual outlay of Tk176,370 crore.

Mahbub said the shortage of revenue collection by the National Board of Revenue would also have a major impact on the total budget for the next fiscal year.

The revised outlay for subsidy has also been slashed by Tk6,603 crore from the existing Tk25,503 crore.

An official of the Finance Ministry who is involved with the revised budget process said savings from the subsidy outlay is now being used to pay for the salary hike of public servants.

The extra money would also be used to increase the Annual Development Programme (ADP) outlay, as the National Economic Council’s estimated ADP outlay of almost Tk94,000 crore is bigger than the Finance Division’s proposed Tk88,000 crore.

Reduction of the subsidy outlay would have a positive impact on reducing budget deficit, the official also said.

According to Planning Ministry sources, the government has drawn criticism as it could barely utilise 41% of the ADP budget in the first nine months of the current fiscal.

Slow implementation compelled the government to cut down the size of the development programme as it found the utilisation of 59% of the ADP in the remaining three months of the fiscal an impossible task.