The government has proposed Tk10,000 crore to be kept in a bulk allocation in the budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 to deal with any extraordinary situation involving the coronavirus, taking the direct and indirect allocation for tackling impacts of the pandemic to around Tk1,50,000 crore.
This bulk allocation will be considered as an additional fund to the regular allocation of Tk29,246 crore for the health sector.
The direct and indirect allocation for dealing the impacts of Covid-19 includes the 19 incentive packages, announced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina this fiscal, amounting to Tk1,03,117 crore and the fund for subsidising food for poor people. The total fund also includes Tk 800 crore to be allocated as allowance and compensation for doctors in the frontline role against Covid-19.
On condition of anonymity, an official of the finance ministry said it cannot be said for sure how long the Covid-19 pandemic will continue.
If the situation deteriorates further, he said, there will be a need for funds to construct hospitals and intensive care units and to buy ventilation, support care equipment, coronavirus test kits, and other tools.
Even if the coronavirus vaccine is invented, it will need to be imported on an urgent basis, he said.
The bulk allocation will be used to meet these expenses, he said, adding that coronavirus-based research would also be financed from this fund.
In the proposed budget speech, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said, “We had a dream of announcing big GDP growth on the occasion of the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The growth rate target of this fiscal year was set at 8.2 percent to 8.3 percent.”
However, in the outgoing fiscal year, the growth rate is estimated at 5.2 percent from 8.2 percent.
The coronavirus has turned the country’s economy upside down with a lower fiscal growth and the next fiscal year’s budget is likely to expose the extent of the grim situation, said the minister.
He said the government is laying utmost importance on the health sector and agriculture sector in the next fiscal.
Finance minister said all necessary measures will be taken throughout the financial year to keep people employed by tackling the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
The government is also keeping Tk3,500 crore to pay the interest on an incentive package of Tk30,000 crore announced to supply the working capital to large industries and service sector and another package of Tk20,000 crore for the Small and Medium Enterprises sector.
In addition, the government is allocating Tk2,000 crore in the budget to subsidise the bank loan interest whose payment was postponed during the April-May period.
However, there will be no special allocation in the budget either to stop layoffs in the private sector or to rehabilitate the laid-off workers.
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