JS budget session begins

The second budget session (8th session) of the 11th parliament began with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudury in the chair on Wednesday afternoon amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, reports UNB.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal will place a Tk 556,978-crore proposed national budget for 2020-21 fiscal year on Thursday giving an outline of recovering the economy from the negative impacts of the pandemic in his budget speech.

Given the situation caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, this time the budget session will be different one as it will have less number of sittings and businesses unlike the previous sessions.

Dr Chaudhury, at the beginning of the session that started at 5pm, told the House that this budget session will be run maintaining all health codes due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

A smaller number of Members of Parliament (MPs) would join the sittings of the budget session for the sake of maintaining safe distancing between every two MPs in the House. Elderly and ailing MPs are discouraged to be present in this session.  

Only the most essential officers and employees of the Parliament Secretariat will remain present during the session.

The Finance Minister will start placing the proposed budget at 3pm on Thursday.

The National Economic Council (NEC) already approved the Annual Development Programme (ADP) of Tk 205,145 crore for 2020-21 fiscal giving importance to transportation, education, health and agriculture sectors.

The size of the outgoing fiscal budget was Tk 523,190 crore, but later it was reduced to Tk 501,577 crore in the revised budget.

On May 18 last, President Abdul Hamid summoned the session (Budget Session for 2020-21FY) exercising power bestowed upon him by Article 72 (1) of the Constitution.