The government on Thursday unveiled a Tk 603,681 crore-national budget for 2021-22 fiscal to get the economy going in spite of the crippling Covid-19 pandemic with a strong focus on vaccinating the population and shoring up their jobs. A bold target has been set to achieve 7.2 per cent of GDP growth as Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presented the budget proposals in Parliament, with deficit totalling Tk. 214,618 crore, which is 6.2 per cent of GDP. To meet the deficit, Tk 101,228 crore will come from external sources, while Tk 113,453 crore from domestic sources of which Tk 76,452 crore will come from the banking system and Tk 37,001 crore from savings certificates and other non-bank sources. Also read: New budget: Tracking prices going up and down  The size of the budget themed  "Bangladesh towards a resilient future protecting lives and livelihoods' is 17.5 percent of the GDP.  He said that the growth rate for 2021-2022 has been fixed at 7.2 percent remaining consistent with the government’s long-term plan and taking the post-Covid recovery situation into account. “It is expected that the inflation rate will be 5.3 per cent during the period.”  Total allocation for operating and other expenditures has been set at Tk 378,357 crore, while the allocation for the annual development program is Tk 225,324 crore.  “In the national budget, we usually formulate development plans in a coordinated manner by combining short, medium and long term action plans. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we do not have all kinds of data in front of us for this year,” he said.  He also mentioned that Bangladesh, under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is moving ahead on the path of faster economic transition than other nations by overcoming the initial impact of COVID-19.  “But already a second wave and even a third wave have begun around the world, the impact of which is quite pronounced everywhere,” he said.

With the announcement of the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year (2021-22), a number of products are expected to see fluctuation in prices both upward and downward. Prices down The prices of products and services which may decline include microbuses, hybrid vehicles, LED bulb, stainless steel, poultry feed ingredients, materials used for manufacturing medical devices, ingredients used for producing medicine, autism services as well as locally-produced sanitary napkins, fresh fruits and puffed rice. Also read: Budget deficit: Savings certificates, non-bank sources to be tapped for one-third of domestic financing Locally-manufactured blender, juicer, mixer, grinder, rice cooker, multi cooker, pressure cooker, washing machine, microwave oven, and electric oven, as well as locally produced or assembled computer, laptop, notebook, notepad, tab, printer, scanner, keyboard, mouse, motherboard, power bank, router, network device, speaker, sound system, earphone, headphone, pen drive, CCTV, monitor, projector, USB cable, data cable, power reaper, power tiller, combined harvester and thresher machine. Also read: It’s a very significant budget: BGMEA Prices up The prices of products and services which may go up include mushroom, imported meat, frozen meat of fowls, mineral water, mobile phone (cellular phone), iron bar and rods, denatured salt, sugar confectionary, vehicle safety glass, imported carrots, chewing gum, industrial salt and foreign soaps.