Bangladesh Budget for fiscal 2011-2012, GDP and Defence spendiing

[naveenp]

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I think our navy and coastguard needs the money more as they have to protect our resource rich bay of bengal and have to fight pirates along the bay. Futhermore, i think we more naval aviation as bangladesh navy only has two helicopters.

i think india is taking care of pirates.

[Loki]

I don't think they are getting new toys anytime soon according to the development budget this year:
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...dget_Graph.pdf

This is non-development budget:
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...et_Graph_3.pdf

Around 6% for the military.

[eastwatch]

Do we need a budget, really?
Shamsul Huq Zahid

Finance Minister AMA Muhith late last week placed a mega- budget in the national parliament for the fiscal 2011-12. A sort of hype is created by the media before and after the presentation of the budget over fiscal measures that have far wider implications on the performance of some major sectors of the economy.

But do we need an annual budget when the government borrows 28 paisa for a taka it spends and sets aside 15.5 per cent of the budgetary resources to pay interest on its debt, domestic and foreign?

Such a question, if asked by taxpayers, is likely to prompt the policymakers to raise their eyebrows.

Yet the taxpayers must not bother and keep on asking questions about the quality of spending of the money they pay to the government, particularly when there are lots of scopes for saving resources from going waste and divert the same to some real productive activities.

Going by the size of the budget for the next fiscal, it may not be improper on the part of the taxpayers to ask, at least, a couple of questions to budget-makers: have the budgetary resources been rightly allocated and could it be possible to bring down the level of borrowing, particularly from the domestic sources including banks?

The total size of the proposed national budget for the fiscal 2011-12 is Tk. 1635.89 billion, including the non-development expenditure of Tk. 1163.13 billion and the development expenditure of Tk. 472.76 billion.

The major part of the resource allocations proposed in the non-development part of the budget for next fiscal is meant to meet the expenditures on account of pay, allowances and pension of the public servants (23 per cent), grants in aid (17.4 per cent), interest payments (15.5 per cent), goods and services (10.1 per cent) and subsidies (8.0 per cent).

There is no denying that the state needs administrative machinery and the taxpayers do have no choice other than supporting it, financially, by paying duties and taxes. Similarly there are other expenditures that the state can hardly avoid. While doing so, most governments across the world are forced to borrow. Take for instance, the USA, the world's richest country. The US government now borrows 40 cents for a dollar it spends annually.

But Bangladesh is not the USA. Resources are hard to mobilize here and the policymakers have to cajole the external borrowers, including the multilateral ones, to secure funds for its development expenditures. However, it is the taxpayers who carry the debt-burden.

The taxpayers in this country do not have any tangible reason to draw satisfaction from the money spent on the sustenance of large yet ineffective administrative machinery. The services the governments, elected or otherwise, deliver in the name of public welfare are highly inadequate and flawed. The quality of both economic and political governance has also been poor and corruption-ridden.

Against the backdrop of such an unsatisfactory performance, substantial borrowing by the government from both domestic and foreign sources to meet budgetary expenditures, obviously, is bound to irritate the taxpayers.

It does appear that the government could have brought down the borrowing target set for the upcoming fiscal through prudent allocation of resources the generation of which might appear relatively tough because of adverse domestic and external environment.

The government does need to ensure substantial investment by both public and private sectors to achieve a 7.0 per cent economic growth target set for the next fiscal. The government, on its part, has prepared an annual development programme (ADP), which is bigger by Tk.101 billion than the revised one for the outgoing fiscal. There are lots of questions about the quality of the development spending and the capacity of the project executing agencies.

Assurances have been aplenty from the policymakers from time to time to improve both quality of development projects and the capacity of the implementation agencies. But the situation has remained almost unchanged. In every third quarter of a financial year, the ADP is invariably downsized because of the poor rate of execution of projects and hurried efforts are made to complete many projects, taking a toll on their quality.

One has no other option but to keep one's fingers crossed as far as private sector investment is concerned in the upcoming fiscal because of a number of factors, including the tight liquidity situation in the banking sector and the continued erosion in the value of taka vis-à-vis the greenback and the resultant effects in relation to some other major currencies that have appreciated against the greenback.

In fact the size of the country's annual budget has been getting bigger and bigger more for meeting bloated administrative expenses, subsidies and interest payments than for anything substantive, in terms of real development and employment generation. That the situation would improve anytime soon is hard to expect.

[bdslph]

how much is the defence budget of bangladesh , i dont have good idea before it was 1 to 1.5 billion dollar

[Loki]

how much is the defence budget of bangladesh , i dont have good idea before it was 1 to 1.5 billion dollar

As of 2009, around $1.37 billion. That's 1% of the country's GDP.



For this year's development and non-development budget:
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...dget_Graph.pdf

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...dget_Graph.pdf

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...et_Graph_2.pdf

[eastwatch]

how much is the defence budget of bangladesh , i dont have good idea before it was 1 to 1.5 billion dollar

Defence budget for FY'2011-12 is about $1.7 billion. But, we have to understand that this defence budget includes only maitenance of equipments and cantonments, salaries of troops and other relevant expenses. Procurement of military hardwares like planes, frigates, SAMs, FAcs etc. is not included in this budget.

[MBI Munshi]

The size of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) at current market price has reached nearly US$110 billion (Tk 7,874.95 billion) in the outgoing fiscal (2010-11), as the manufacturing sector is playing the driving role, officials said Tuesday.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) said the GDP size has swelled by over $9.0 billion to reach 109.4 billion from $100.6 billion of the previous fiscal (2009-10), marking a rise of 13.42 per cent.

The country's total gross national income (GNI) has reached $118.45 billion (Tk 8,528.22 billion) due to buoyant remittance inflow during the current fiscal, the BB said.

At constant price, Bangladesh's GDP has expanded at the rate of 6.66 per cent in the FY 2010-11.

The sate-owned statistical department showed that the manufacturing sector's contribution to the GDP has stood at $19.23 billion in the outgoing fiscal from the previous fiscal's input of $16.68 billion.

The BBS said out of the manufacturing sector's $19.23 billion contribution to the GDP, participation of the large and medium industries has stood at $13.73 billion, and that of the small industries $5.5 billion in current market price in FY 2011.

The wholesale and retail trade has secured the second position, as its input to the total GDP has reached $15.82 billion in the fiscal.

The agriculture and forestry sector's total GDP size at current price has stood at $15.75 billion in the FY 2011 from its $13.97 billion contribution in the last fiscal.

Based on total 147.90 million population in the country, the BBS said the per capita income (GDP) in Bangladesh at constant market price has increased to $755 in the outgoing fiscal from $687 of the previous fiscal.

The country's per capita GNI has also reached $818 in the outgoing fiscal, marking a rise of $67 on year-on-year basis, compared to $751 in the previous fiscal, the BBS data showed.

Chief of the state-owned think-tank General Economics Division (GED) Prof Shamsul Alam said as the non-farming activities in the rural areas boosted due to remittance flow, the economic activities in the country have become more vibrant.

"I am very much confident that Bangladesh will emerge as a middle-income country before 2021, as the country's total GDP size will be expanding at impressive rates in the future also like the outgoing fiscal," he said.

"If we update the base-year and include some newly-emerged trading and business sectors with the calculation, the total GDP size will be much higher," he added.

The BBS calculates its macro-economic indicators at constant price, considering the 1995-96 fiscal as the base year.

GDP reaches $110b in FY'11

[MBI Munshi]

With the right economic policies Bangladesh GDP can be brought to $1 trillion in 10 years time.

[fallstuff]

Nah, thats more than dreaming Munshi.

It will take some serious weed to reach the HIGH of $1 trillion GDP in ten years

[MBI Munshi]

Nah, thats more than dreaming Munshi.

It will take some serious weed to reach the HIGH of $1 trillion GDP in ten years

It would require 8% growth per year. More realistic if we use the present 6% growth as a basis then more likely 15 years. But I don't see why the the BD economy should not take off.

[jeypore]

It would require 8% growth per year. More realistic if we use the present 6% growth as a basis then more likely 15 years. But I don't see why the the BD economy should not take off.

not to burst your bubble, but reading this article there is no mention of Inflation rate also!!!!!!!!!

[MBI Munshi]

I think already our GDP is under estimated because a large part of the service sector is left out. I read that in the Financial Express recently. Think about it a plot in Motijheel is worth the same as a plot of land in downtown Tokyo right now. Apartments are selling at 2000Sq ft for around 3-4 crore. Even 5 years ago that would have been crazy. Similarly the GDP only calculates the white economy. With the black economy included the figure actually doubles.

[MBI Munshi]

not to burst your bubble, but reading this article there is no mention of Inflation rate also!!!!!!!!!

You are right. Inflation is in double digits but this indicates a fast expanding economy.

[great]

You are right. Inflation is in double digits but this indicates a fast expanding economy.

Fast expanding economy with ever increasing poverty more appropriately.

[MBI Munshi]

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Fast expanding economy with ever increasing poverty more appropriately.

A typical Indian response. Look at your own grinding poverty and then throw stones.