The allocation for local government division in the upcoming national budget is likely to be the highest among ten major ministries for eight consecutive years.
The outlay of the local government division will be Tk 36,103.01 crore in the next 2020-21 fiscal year which is Tk 1860.01 crore or 5.43% higher than this year’s outlay of Tk 34,243.00 crore.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in first week of this month placed the 2019-20 revised budget and 2020-21 fiscal year budget outline before Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her Ganabhaban residence.
Finance minister will place the proposed national budget in Jatiya Sangsad on June 11 for the upcoming 2020-21 fiscal year.
An official of finance division said 10 major ministries will cover 47 percent of the total budget outlay as Tk 5,60,000 crore.
The official said the major part of the local government division expenditure will spend in the city corporations and municipal areas as those institutions have incurred huge losses during last several years.
Health sector, which is likely to see 40% hike in next budget, will also need huge funds for next fiscal year due to deadly coronavirus pandemic, the official added.
Talking to economist and former finance adviser to past caretaker government Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam said the less priority ministries and divisions will get huge allocation which is not a good economic decision during coronavirus pandemic.
He said “The health services will secure fifth position among top 10 ministries but large fund in the health services will not deliver expected result unless the government carries out huge reform in the sector.”
According to prime minister meeting documents, the Local Government Division will get the highest allocation of Tk 36103 crore followed by defence ministry’s budget Tk 34,817.47 crore which is second highest outlay for next fiscal.
Defence budget outlay is likely to increase by 13.17 percent compared to outgoing fiscal outlay Tk 30,764.00.
Third highest allocation in the next fiscal is secondary and higher education with an outlay of Tk 33.119.70 crore.
Fourth fattest allocation will be bagged by the road transport and highways division which is Tk 29,442.12 crore.
Fifth largest bulk of the budget will be spent for health services, touching the outlay of Tk 27, 850 crore — 0.74 percent of next fiscal year total GDP. Next fiscal health sector allowance will reach 5% of the budget outlay.
Primary and Mass Education Ministry is likely to get sixth biggest chunk amounting to Tk 24,937.92 crore followed by power division Tk 24,853.30 crore, public security division Tk 22,635.17 crore, science and technology ministry Tk 17,945.76 crore and railways ministry Tk 16,419.30 crore.
