Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said the government did not think about the source of funds for the FY21 budget because saving lives was the top priority amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We didn’t think about from where the funds would come. Lives must be saved; jobs must be created; rural and macro-economy must be revived. We will bring the money no matter how much we will need,” he said.
“Considering these things, we will spend first, and earn later. We must save lives first. Then we can [think about] funds,” Kamal said at an post-budget virtual press conference on Friday, report bdnews24.com and UNB.
Planning Minister MA Mannan and Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque also joined the online briefing.
The finance minister unveiled a Tk 5.68 trillion budget with a hope to achieve 8.2 per cent GDP growth in the next fiscal year in parliament on Thursday.
He said the proposed budget is not just a ‘traditional’ one as some economists have described it, but rather one for ‘saving lives and livelihoods’.
The finance minister said, “We gave priority to agriculture sector after health sector in the budget. We want to make the agriculture sector in a new way.”
“Mainly, we need huge money to feed the nation and create jobs," he said.
Talking about the growth target, finance minister said Bangladesh will be able to achieve the GDP growth target if it can tackle the COVID-19 crisis well.
“We expect that the coronavirus won’t be prolonged in the country and we can collect revenue as per our expectation," he said.
‘We have been able to achieve our target in previous years. So we hope we can obtain GPD growth this year too," Kamal added.
The virus crisis also created obstacles to getting enough data to make the budget, he said. “We had to work in a different way,” the minister said.