New fiscal year to begin with per capita debt Tk. 46000

The people of Bangladesh will begin their new fiscal year 2017-18 on July 1 with per capita debt Tk. 46,000, which was Tk. 40,000 in the fiscal year 2016-17.

The size of budget is increasing every year but internal resource is not increasing. As a result, the government takes loan from external and internal sources to meet the deficit, according medium-term macroeconomic policy published on June 1.

The gross debt will stand at Tk. 761,930 crore, of which external loan Tk. 290,430 crore, at the end of the next fiscal year, which is 34.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), according to Finance Ministry data.

The country has a loan of Tk. 659,390 crore as on June 30 of the running 2016-17 fiscal year, the data show.

Bangladesh’s loan dependency is increasing day by day because of deficit budget every year, according to experts.

The country faces a great challenge because of the loan, as it has to pay a large amount of money as interest, which could be spent in education and health sectors, said AB Mirza Md. Azizul Islam, a former adviser of caretaker government.