The Budget Session of the current Parliament will begin on Wednesday to approve the national budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year.
The session, said to be a brief one, will begin at 5 pm with the presence of a handful of lawmakers in the House as part of precautionary measures to maintain social distancing and thus avoid the risk of Covid-19 infections.
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Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal will place the proposed budget of Tk 603,681 crore, which is 17.47% of the GDP, in the House on June 3 with more than 6% of deficit. It will be placed once it is approved by the special cabinet meeting which will be held at the cabinet room of Parliament with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
According to sources at the Parliament Secretariat, this session will be a brief one, not more than two weeks, unlike other budget sessions held before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last year, the budget session was prorogued after nine working days due to the pandemic. It was the shortest budget session in Bangladesh’s recent history.
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Only budget-related and other important works will be done in this session while the question-answer sessions for the Prime Minister and Ministers will be tabled.
Only MPs, staffers and officials of the parliament secretariat after being tested negative for Covid-19 will be allowed to attend the session. Senior MPs have been advised not to take part in the session.
Parliament will conduct its daily business with less than 100 MPs for maintaining distance in their sitting arrangement.
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As per the constitution of the country, there is an obligation to pass the budget before June 30 while the rules of procedure also instruct the MPs to take part in budget discussions.
Meanwhile, the media has been advised to cover the budget session from live telecast on Sangsad Television instead of coming to parliament as no pass will be issued to journalists to cover the budget session this time also due to the Covid-19 situation.