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JS-47
KAMAL-BUDGET-FY22, TWO LAST
Giving an utmost priority to the programmes and steps taken by the government to address the COVID-19 pandemic, Kamal proposed to allocate Taka 32,731 crore for the Health and Family Welfare sector in the next fiscal year, which was Tk. 29,245 crore in FY21.
Listing the number of current taxpayers at 25.43 lakh, Kamal said emphasis would be given in the next budget to bring eligible taxpayers under the tax net by taking necessary steps to boost tax collection.
“Moreover, our Tax-GDP ratio is low compared to that in other similar economies. Measures will, therefore, be taken to increase the Tax-GDP ratio at a reasonable level,” he added.
The government has set the target for total revenue income in the FY22 at Taka 3,89,000 crore, which is 11.3 percent of GDP. Out of this, Taka 3,30,000 crore will be collected through the NBR sources. Tax revenue from non-NBR sources has been estimated at Taka 16,000 crore, while the non-tax revenue is estimated to be Taka 43,000 crore.
The allocation proposed for the social infrastructure sector in the budget is Taka 1,70,510 crore, which is 28.25 percent of total allocation, in which allocation for human resources sector (education, health and other related sectors) will be Taka 1,55,847 crore.
Allocation proposed for the physical infrastructure sector is Taka 1,79,681 crore or 29.76 percent, in which Taka 74,102 crore will go to overall agriculture and rural development, Taka 69,474 crore to overall communications, and Taka 27,484 crore to power and energy.
A total of Taka 1,45,150 crore has been proposed for general services, which is 24.04 percent of the total allocation. Taka 34,648 crore is proposed for public-private partnerships (PPP), financial assistance to different industries, subsidies, equity investments in state-owned, commercial and financial institutions, which is 5.74 percent of the total allocation.
Besides, there are allocations of Taka 68,589 crore for interest payment, which is 11.36 percent of the total allocation, Taka 5,103 crore for net lending and other expenses, which is 0.85 percent of the total allocation.
Kamal proposed to further reduce the tax rate for companies not listed in the stock exchange to 30 percent from 32.5 percent, and the tax rate for listed companies to 22.5 percent from 25 percent for FY22.
The existing tax rate of 32.5 percent for companies is also applicable for One Person Companies (OPCs). With a view to further formalizing the economy and to encourage formation of One Person Companies, he proposed a tax rate of 25 percent for the One Person Companies.
The Finance Minister proposed to keep the rate of tax applicable for individual taxpayers unchanged as significant changes have already been brought to this effect in FY21.
The existing tax rate for individual taxpayers is also applicable for the taxpayers of the third gender.
“With a view to achieving social inclusion of the third gender, besides introducing a special provision, I propose to fix the tax-free ceiling at Taka 3,50,000 for this community,” he added.
Considering the impact of the pandemic, the government has made allocation of Taka 1,07,614 crore in the social safety net sector, which is 17.83 percent of the budget and 3.11 percent of the GDP.
Besides, decision has been taken to widen the coverage of the Old Age Allowances and the Allowances for Destitute Women by including all eligible persons in another 150 upazilas which will be implemented in FY22.
To boost the inward remittance flow, the cash incentive at the rate of 2 percent will be continued in the next fiscal year as well. In addition, special ‘package programmes’ will be initiated by concerned banks to increase the flow of remittances through the banking channel.
From the next fiscal year, the coverage of 100 percent deserving beneficiaries under the ‘allowance for widows, deserted and destitute women’ programme will be implemented in another 150 such upazilas in addition to 112 upazilas belonging to the extremely high and high poverty groups.
“This will add 4.25 lakh new beneficiaries and an additional allocation of Tk. 255 crore will be allocated for this purpose,” added the minister.
“The honorarium of the valiant freedom fighters will be increased from Taka 12,000 to Taka 20,000 in the next fiscal year. This will require an increased allocation of Tk. 1,920 crore,” he added.
BSS/ASG/GM/TAN/1949hrs