The Cabinet in its special meeting at the parliament presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has cleared the proposed budget for 2019-20 fiscal.
The cabinet also endorsed the Appropriation (supplementary) Bill- 2019, and the Appropriation Bill-2019.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal joined the meeting about 30 minutes later around 1.20pm. The meeting started from around 12:45pm.
The finance minister appeared a little physically weak when he entered the parliament, and he required assistance from other officials to enter the meeting.
The minister started for the Parliament from his Gulshan 2 residence in Dhaka around 12pm, his family said. On Tuesday, 72-year-old Kamal went to Apollo Hospital to seek treatment, as he was suffering from a fever.
However, he made a full recovery before joining Thursday's budget proposal, his family stated.
With the manifold economic challenges ahead, Kamal, a businessman-turned politician, will unveil a budget of Tk 5.23 trillion in parliament.
This is the first time Kamal will propose the budget in the national parliament. In the last five years, he has helped former Finance Minister AMA Muhith in preparing the budget.
The finance minister has described his first budget as a ‘smart’ one aiming to bring a set of reforms, including the new VAT law.