Implementation rate of revised budget 87 pc

Staff Correspondent : Even after reducing Tk 84,615 crores from the original budget, it was not possible to implement the revised budget of the last financial year 2022-2023. That is, the government could not achieve the ability to implement the entire budget.
The size of the original budget for the financial year 2022-2023, which ended last December, was Tk 6 lakh 78 thousand 64 crores. Later after revision it was fixed at Tk6 lakh 60 thousand 507 crores. But against the revised budget, the total expenditure was Tk5 lakh 75 thousand 892 crores. Accordingly, the budget implementation rate in the last financial year stood at 84.93 percent of the original budget and 87.19 percent of the revised budget.
Recently, the Finance Department of the Ministry of Finance has released this final account of the implementation of the budget and it has been presented to Parliament by the Finance Minister.
A review of budget documents shows that it is generally not possible to implement the entire budget in any financial year. Even the revised budget cannot be fully implemented by the ministries. An average of 81 percent of the original budget and an average of 87 percent of the revised budget have been implemented in the last 6 years.
As an example, in the fiscal year 2021-2022, the size of the original budget was Tk6 lakh 3 thousand 681 crores. In the revised budget, it has been reduced to Tk 5 lakh 93 thousand 500 crore. Against this, the total expenditure was Tk5 lakh 18 thousand 286 crores. The budget implementation rate was 85.85 percent of the original budget and 87.33 percent of the revised budget. Accordingly, the budget implementation rate has decreased in the fiscal year 2022-2023.
The budget implementation rate in the previous financial year i.e. 2020-2021 was 81 percent of the original budget. In the financial year under discussion, the size of the original budget was Tk 5 lakh 68 thousand crores. In the revised budget, it has been reduced to Tk 5 lakh 38 thousand 983 crore. Against this, the total expenditure has been Tk 4 lakh 60 thousand 160 crores.
According to the accounts of the Finance Department, in the first 9 months of the last fiscal year 2022-2023 (July 2022-March 2023), the total expenditure was Tk 2 lakh 93 thousand 731 crores (budget implementation rate was about 43 percent of the original budget). In the first quarter (July-September 2022) Tk 82 thousand 307 crores (budget implementation rate of 12 percent); In the second quarter (October-December 2022) Tk 1 lakh 1 thousand 902 crores (budget implementation rate 15.29 percent) and in the third quarter (January-March 2023) Tk 1 lakh 9 thousand 522 crores were spent (budget implementation rate 16.15 percent).
On the other hand, only in the fourth quarter (March-June 2023) Tk 2 lakh 82 thousand 162 crores have been spent (budget implementation rate 41.61 percent). The review shows that in the last three months of the last financial year (April-June 2023), almost the same budget was implemented as in the previous nine months.
In this regard, the Finance Department is observing that the budget implementation of various ministries and departments and other organizations is usually slow at the beginning of the financial year. Expenditure is also low compared to all other items except salaries and allowances of government employees.

Actions are taken towards the end of the financial year especially in the payment of various utility bills, maintenance of repairs, construction and completion works and procurement of goods. Due to these reasons, the expenditure increased in the last quarter of the financial year.
According to the Finance Department, the original and revised revenue collection target under the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in the last financial year 2022-2023 was Tk 3 lakh 70 thousand crore. Against this, Tk 3 lakh 19 thousand 589 crores have been recovered (recovery rate is 86 percent). On the other hand, the non-NBR tax collection target was Tk 18000 crore and against it Tk 8149 crore was collected (collection rate 45 percent). Apart from this, the receipts without tax were estimated at Tk 45 thousand crores and against this the collection was Tk 39 thousand 39 crores (receipt rate 86 percent).
According to the accounts of the Finance Department, the budget deficit in the last financial year 2022-2023 stood at Tk 2 lakh 6 thousand 364 crores. It is 5.2 percent of GDP. Tk 1 lakh 18 thousand 25 crores have been borrowed from the banking system and a net loan of Tk 79,156 crores has been taken from foreign sources to meet the budget deficit. In addition, a total of Tk 3,347 crores of interest has been paid in the savings sector.
The finance department said that timely and fair budget implementation is still a major challenge. Due to non-implementation of the budget, it is not possible to ensure the quality of government expenditure in many cases. In addition, at the end of the year, the government has to take responsibility for the unplanned debt. As a result, financial discipline cannot be ensured. If it is possible to take advance planning and implement it with a view to implementing the budget properly and on time, it is possible to avoid unplanned government borrowing and significantly reduce the debt-related expenditure of the government.