Seventeen autonomous agencies of the government deposited Tk 40,710 crore into the national exchequer till July 2024. Among them, the BPC contributed the most, with a deposit of Tk 11,500 crore, according to the sources at the Ministry of Finance.
The funds of all autonomous agencies in the country, including autonomous, semi-autonomous, constitutionally established public authorities, and public non-financial corporations, are deposited in various banks as "idle" money.
The government decided in a cabinet meeting in September 2019 to deposit the surplus funds of these agencies into the national exchequer, which was later enacted into law.
In February 2020, despite a strong opposition from the National Party and a walkout by the BNP, the National Parliament passed the “Deposition of Surplus Money of Self-Governed Agencies including Autonomous, Semi-Autonomous and Statutory Government Authorities and Public Non-Financial Corporations to the National Exchequer Bill 2020.”
There has been no precedent of such strong opposition to a bill during the tenure of the then Awami League government. The opposing members referred to the bill as a "black law" and withdrew their proposed amendments in protest.
The law states that the expenses incurred for operating these agencies and the funds required for implementing development projects through self-financing will be kept in their own funds. Additionally, these agencies will be allowed to reserve 25 per cent of their operational costs for emergency expenses.
They will also maintain funds for employee pensions or provident funds.
Any remaining funds after these allocations will be deposited into the government's treasury. In other words, they will not be put in a difficult position; they will retain the necessary funds while depositing the surplus into the national treasury.
According to this law, as of July 31 of the current fiscal year, BPC deposited Tk 11,500 crore, BPDB deposited Tk 4,600cr, Export Promotion Bureau deposited Tk 300cr, NCITB deposited Tk 131.89 crore, the Chittagong Port Authority deposited Tk 4,800 crore, the Mongla Port Authority deposited Tk 400 crore, BEZA deposited Tk 400 crore, the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board deposited Tk 1,500 crore, RAJUK deposited Tk 2,550 crore, Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority deposited Tk 1,200 crore.
Petrobangla deposited Tk 9,871 crore, Dhaka WASA deposited Tk 50 crore, the National University, Bangladesh deposited Tk 1,000 crore, Bangladesh Open University deposited Tk 100 crore, the Bangladesh Bridge Authority deposited Tk 400 crore, BSIC deposited Tk 600 crore, and BSTI deposited Tk 100 crore. In total, Tk 40,709.89 crore has been deposited by the 17 autonomous agencies of the government.
Among these, BPC has outstanding dues of Tk 1,500 crore taka, BPDC has Tk 500 crore, the Export Promotion Bureau has Tk 300 crore, SCTB has Tk 200 crore, the CAAB has Tk 650 crore, Petrobangla Tk 2,000 crore, and Dhaka WASA Tk 250cr which expressed an inability to pay.
The former Awami League government began utilizing the surplus funds of autonomous, semi-autonomous, constitutionally established public authorities, and public non-financial corporations for developmental work by depositing this money into the national exchequer.
The current interim government has continued this practice.
The funds have primarily been collected since the Fiscal Year 2019-20 to meet government expenditures. During that fiscal year, the agencies deposited a total of Tk 23,546 crore.
According to the law, it is the responsibility of the agencies to deposit their surplus funds into the national exchequer. However, for various reasons, they were not doing so.
Consequently, in September 2019, the Finance Division drafted a law on the matter and submitted it to the cabinet, which approved it. Subsequently, the law was passed in the National Parliament in early 2020.
