Describing the Tk 5.23 trillion expenditure in proposed national budget for FY20 as “over ambitious”, the BNP says that the government will struggle to raise the revenue to finance it.
“It’s an over ambitious budget and the people is least interested about as it will be revised down at the end of fiscal year,” Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told a media call on Friday (Jun 14), a day after the budget was presented in parliament.
In the proposed budget, the GDP growth is projected at 8.2 percent for FY20. Kamal hopes to keep the inflation target below 5.5 percent in the new fiscal year.
Of the Tk 5.23 trillion, the proposed budget sets out a revenue target of over Tk 3.77 trillion. More than Tk 3.25 trillion is expected to come through the National Board of Revenue.
The budget deficit stands at Tk 1.45 trillion, which is 5 percent of the GDP.
Mirza Fakhrul, however, said the deficit would rise further.
Referring to the tagline ‘Time is Ours, Time for Bangladesh’ of Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal’s maiden budget, the senior BNP leader said, “It’s actually only their [the Awami League’s] time.”