Dwaipayan Barua

The government will allocate Tk 47,283 crore to 12 mega projects, including those on the fast-track list, from the development budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

Mahbubul Alam has been re-elected president of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) in an election that saw all director hopefuls emerging victorious without any votes.

The budgetary allocation meant for the poor and vulnerable is set to go past Tk 1 lakh crore mark for the first time as the government sets aside additional funds to support the needy during the coronavirus-induced income collapse.

The government may allocate Tk 225,324 crore to implement development projects in the next fiscal year, which is 14 per cent higher than that in the revised budget.

The government may keep its tax collection target unchanged for the National Board of Revenue in the next fiscal year because of the devastating effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy.

Undisclosed assets worth a staggering Tk 14,295 crore have been legalised in the first nine months of this fiscal year.

The government may increase its allocation for incentive expenses for remittance in the next fiscal year as it looks to retain the surge of the flow of the cheapest source of foreign currencies for Bangladesh.

The government plans to set an ambitious target of using foreign aid worth Tk 88,024 crore for development projects in the next fiscal year as external assistance has piled up.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has downsized its projection about the Bangladesh’s GDP growth in the current fiscal year of 2020-21, considering the second wave of Covid pandemic and fresh lockdown that restricted economic activities.

The government has revised down the GDP growth projection to 6.1 per cent for 2020-21, the second revision this fiscal year, reflecting the devastating impacts of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic on the battered economy.

The government has already provided seasonal assistance to about 10 lakh people living below the poverty line and will expand such social protection programmes to curb the adverse effects of any future economic shock, according to Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

There has been a sharp fall in delivery of imported goods from the Chittagong port in the last six days since the countrywide lockdown was imposed on April 14 as importers are not taking the deliveries timely.

The first nine months of the current fiscal year of 2020-21 saw slow implementation of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) with only 41.92 per cent of the total outlay spent till March while development spending declined 3.27 per cent year-on-year.

The World Bank has agreed to provide $500 million to Bangladesh in additional financing to buy Covid-19 vaccines, but set some conditions regarding the procurement of the shots.

The Covid-19 pandemic has reversed Bangladesh’s steady trend of poverty reduction which had continued over the past two decades, according to a new report of the World Bank.

Economists have suggested that the government open a hotline service through which ultra-poor people facing food crisis during “lockdown” can communicate their sufferings and the government can take prompt steps to get food to them.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday indicated that the government may consider reducing corporate tax rates for listed firms in the upcoming budget.

Despite taking aggressive measures to import rice in the last three months, the government has so far failed to replenish the country’s depleting grain stocks.

The International Monetary Fund has raised its projection for the economic growth of Bangladesh to 5 per cent for 2021, up from 4.4 per cent it forecast in October.

World Bank in its latest twice-a-year regional update has raised question whether remittance flow in the South Asian countries has really increased.