Dhaka: The Jatiya Sangsad (JS) on Tuesday passed the national budget for fiscal year 2015-2016 (FY) to further augment the ongoing pace of development and achieve a higher growth for transforming Bangladesh into a developed nation by 2041 and achieving a middle income status by 2021 as enshrined in the Vision-2021 of the present government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

With adoption of the Appropriation Bill-2015 in voice votes, the JS passed the Taka 2 lakh 95thousand 100crore the national budget placed by Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on 4 June in the House.

The finance minister moved the appropriation bill seeking budgetary allocations for meeting development and non-development expenditures of various ministries and the government.

On Monday, the JS passed the Finance Bill 2015 in an amended form with some changes to the tax-duty proposals. With the adoption of the Finance Bill 2015 on Sunday and the Appropriation Bill 2015 today, the process of the JS passing the national budget for FY 2015-2016 is completed.

The opposition and independent lawmakers proposed a total 523 cut motions, but they only spoke on the motions for six demands for grants, which were rejected by voice vote.

Ministers in charge of the concerned ministries placed their proposals for expenditures through 56 demands for grants, which were passed by voice vote.

Leader of the House and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Begum Rowshan Ershad, Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, ministers, 219 treasury, opposition benches and independent members took part in discussion for 58 hours on the budget for FY 2015-16 and the supplementary budget for FY 2014-15 in 18 working days from June 8.

In the budget for the FY 2015-16, the GDP growth target has been set at 7.0 per cent and the inflation rate at 6.2 per cent.

In the budget for FY-2015-2016, the revenue receipt has been estimated at Taka 2 lakh 8 thousand 443 crore, of which, Taka 1 lakh 76 thousand 370 crore will come from NBR while Taka 5 thousand 874 crore from non-NBR sources. In addition, Taka 26 thousand 199 crore will be collected as Non Tax Revenue (NTR).

The allocation for non-development and other expenditure has been estimated at Taka 1 lakh 98 thousand 100 crore. Expenditure for Annual Development Plan (ADP) has been estimated at Taka 97 thousand crore.

The overall budget deficit has been estimated at Taka 86 thousand 657 crore, which is 4.7 per cent of GDP. Of the amount, Taka 30 thousand 134 crore will come from the external sources and Taka 56 thousand 523 crore from the domestic sources. Of the domestic financing, Taka 38 thousand 523 crore will come from the banking system and Taka 18 thousand crore from savings certificate and other non-banking sources.

In his budget speech, Muhith presented his strategies and plans on implementation of the budget for the FY 2015-2016.