About 20 pc of budget never been implemented

Accounts of Ministry of Finance

Zarif Mahmud: The finance minister presents the budget for the next financial year to the National Assembly in June every year. It was also passed in the same month. However, in the middle of the fiscal year, it can be seen that the implementation of the budget is a sad picture. Even after half time, when it was seen that even one-third of the budget was not implemented, the Finance Ministry revised it. However, at the end of the fiscal year, the revised budget is not fully implemented.
Thus, every year a part of the budget remains unrealized. There are two main reasons for this. First, the government may not achieve the budgeted revenue target in any year. Analyzing the figures of the last decade, it has been found that the revenue has been 14 to 30 percent less than the target. Second, the government’s development expenditure also remains unrealized by 15 to 20 percent every year.
Operating expenses are also cut somewhat. In this, the budgeted income and expenditure do not meet any targets.
The Ministry of Finance has analyzed the picture of budget implementation since the current government assumed power till the last financial year, which came out in the publication entitled ‘Medium Term Macroeconomic Policy Statement: 2024-25 to 2026-27’. It was released on June 6 as a companion publication to the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2024-25. At the same time, the government’s revenue targets and achievement figures are also analyzed in the publication.
It shows that from 2009-10 to 2022-23, on an average, 15 to 20 percent of the budget is not being implemented every year. Of these, the least has been implemented in the fiscal year 2016-17. About 79 percent of the budget was implemented that fiscal year.
The non-implementation rate was 20.88 percent. And the maximum budget is implemented in the fiscal year 2010-11. The implementation rate that fiscal year was about 97 percent. Only three percent were not implemented that year.
According to information, the Awami League-led grand coalition government gave the first full budget in June 2009 after assuming power. The size of the proposed budget for the financial year 2009-10 was Tk 1 lakh 13 thousand 819 crores. But at the end of the fiscal year, Tk 1 lakh 1 thousand 608 crore was implemented. That is, the grand coalition government could not implement 10.73 percent of the budget in the first year of assuming power. Although the government has shown success in implementing the budget for the next financial year. The size of the proposed budget for the financial year 2010-11 was Tk 1 lakh 32 thousand 170 crore. Out of this, Tk 1 lakh 28 thousand 268 crore was implemented. That is, the budget was implemented 97.05 percent. The rate of non-implementation of the budget that fiscal year was only 2.95 percent.
The budget implementation picture was relatively good in the next two financial years as well. Out of this, the size of the proposed budget for the financial year 2011-12 was Tk 1 lakh 63 thousand 589 crores. However, only Tk 1 lakh 52 thousand 428 crore was implemented. That is, more than 93 percent of the budget was implemented. Only 6.82 percent have not been implemented. The size of the proposed budget for the next financial year has increased to Tk 1 lakh 91 thousand 738 crores. However, Tk 1 lakh 52 thousand 428 crore or 90.76 percent was implemented. That is, 9.24 percent of the budget was not implemented that fiscal year. During the period of Grand Alliance and Awami League government, the budget implementation picture was in the best condition in those three years.
Since then, the gap between budget proposal and implementation has been widening. Especially in the next four years, this difference has gradually increased. Out of this, the fiscal year 2013-14 for the first time released the budget size of Tk 2 lakh crore. Although many have been implemented. The size of the proposed budget for the financial year 2012-13 was Tk 222,491 crores. However, Tk 1 lakh 88 thousand 208 crore or 84.59 percent was implemented. That is, 15.41 percent of the budget has not been implemented.
The size of the proposed budget for the financial year 2014-15 is Tk 2.5 lakh crores. However, a little more than Tk 2 lakh crore was implemented. The proposed and implemented budgets for that financial year were Tk 250,006 crore and Tk 2,400,380 crore respectively. That is, the budget is implemented 81.59 percent. 18.41 percent of the budget was not implemented that fiscal year. The rate increased further in the next two financial years.
The size of the proposed budget for the financial year 2015-16 was Tk 2 lakh 95 thousand 100 crores. However, Tk 2 lakh 38 thousand 433 crore or 80.80 percent was implemented. That is, 19.20 percent have not been implemented. 2016-17 fiscal year the size of the proposed budget exceeded Tk 3 lakh crores and the implementation exceeded Tk 2.5 lakh crores. The proposed budget for that financial year was Tk 3 lakh 40 thousand 605 crore, of which only Tk 2 lakh 69 thousand 499 crore was implemented. That is, 79.12 percent is implemented, which is the lowest during the tenure of the current government.
2017-18 fiscal year the size of the proposed budget exceeded Tk 4 lakh crores and the implementation exceeded Tk 3 lakh crores. The size of the proposed budget for that financial year was Tk 4 lakh 266 crore. However, Tk 3 lakh 21 thousand 862 crore or 80.41 percent was implemented. That is, 19.59 percent of the budget was not implemented that fiscal year. 2018-19 budget implementation rate increased slightly. The size of the proposed budget for that financial year was Tk 4 lakh 64 thousand 573 crores and implemented Tk 3 lakh 91 thousand 690 crores. That is, the implementation rate was 84.31 percent. The deviation in budget implementation that fiscal year was 15.69 percent.
In the next two years, the rate of budget execution again declined. Among them, the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2019-20 for the first time crossed Tk 5 lakh crore. And Tk 4 lakh crore apart from implementation. However, economic activities started to be limited from January of that financial year due to Corona. And for the last three months economic activities were almost closed. Having 66 days of general holidays affects the government’s revenue income and implementation of development projects.
The proposed budget for the financial year 2019-20 was Tk 5 lakh 23 thousand 190 crores. And Tk 4 lakh 20 thousand 160 crore was implemented. That is, 80.31 percent of the budget was implemented. Budget non-implementation exceeds Tk 1 lakh crore for the first time. The deviation in budget implementation that fiscal year was Tk 1 lakh three thousand 30 crores or 19.69 percent. The financial year witnessed a collapse in economic activities with negative growth in imports and exports.
The shock of Corona caused a big wound to the economy of Bangladesh in the next financial year as well. The pace of implementation of development projects for the financial year 2020-21 was also very slow. Other economic activities started on a limited scale but it took the whole fiscal year to normalize the situation. The size of the proposed budget for that financial year was Tk 5 lakh 68 thousand crores. However, Tk 4 lakh 60 thousand 160 crore or about 81 percent was implemented. In terms of size, the most unrealized budget in that fiscal year was Tk 1 lakh seven thousand 840 crore. The deviation rate in implementation was 18.99 percent.
As the situation improved, the budget implementation increased slightly in the next two financial years. Of this, the size of the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 is Tk 6 lakh crore. However, Tk 5 lakh crore except implementation. In that financial year, the amount of these two was Tk 6 lakh 3 thousand 681 crores and Tk 5 lakh 18 thousand 188 crores respectively. That is, the budget is implemented 85.84 percent. The deviation rate was 14.16 percent.
The size of the proposed budget for the financial year 2022-23 was Tk 6 lakh 78 thousand 64 crore. Of this, Tk 5 lakh 73 thousand 857 crore or 84.63 percent was implemented. That is, 15.37 percent of the budget was not implemented that fiscal year. However, due to the increase in the size of the budget, in terms of amount, the deviation in the implementation of the budget last fiscal year was the second highest Tk 1 lakh four thousand 207 crore. In that financial year, the government’s operating expenditure was 4.33 percent less than the target. However, the implementation of the development budget is 22 percent less than the target. Basically, due to this effect the implementation of the budget is much less.
In the context of budget deviation, the Medium-Term Macroeconomic Policy Statement said, by analyzing the difference between planned income and expenditure, actual income and expenditure gives an idea of priority and sectoral expenditure, which will play an important role in proper budget preparation in the future.