The interim government is going to pass the national budget for the 2025-26 financial year today, with the proposed money legalisation facility through the construction of buildings on own land and the purchase of flats likely to be dropped.
On June 2, finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed unveiled a Tk聽7.9 lakh crore proposed budget for the financial year beginning on July 1 in a televised address in the absence of Jatiya Sangsad.
It is the first budget of the interim government that assumed power on August 8, 2024, three days after the ouster of the authoritarian Awami League regime in mass uprising.
Internal Resources Division officials said that a preliminary decision was made to drop the money legalisation provision amid widespread criticism against the facility.
They said that the final decision on the issue would come from a meeting of the advisory council today.
Planning adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud in a post-budget discussion arranged by local think-tank Research and Policy Integration for Development in the capital Dhaka on Saturday said that the special scope for legalising undisclosed money had brought no major benefits in the past years in term of generating tax.
鈥楽o, dropping the provision proposed in the FY26 budget will not make a big difference,鈥� said the planning adviser.
The IRD officials, however, said that a general scope for legalising undisclosed money would be kept in the FY26 budget for taxpayers who failed to disclose their legal incomes in the past years.
In that case, the taxpayers have to pay penalty in addition to giving the maximum income tax as per the proposed slabs, they said.
The National Board of Revenue is also expected to bring about some minor changes to the budget proposals.
The minor changes are linked to the cancellation of 5 per cent advance income tax on imports of lenses and the same amount of duty on import of heart rings, the officials said.
Besides, import duty on solar panel may be reduced, they said.
In the absence of parliament, the passage of the聽 national budget will be made by promulgating an ordinance.
An ordinance on the proposed budget was also promulgated on June 2.
The interim government has proposed an outlay of Tk聽7.90 lakh crore in the FY26 budget with Tk聽5.6 lakh crore has been earmarked for non-development budget.
The development budget has been set at Tk聽2.30 lakh crore.
The target for the gross domestic product growth has been set at 5.5 per cent, that for inflation at 6.5 per cent, and that for private investment at 24.31 per cent in FY26.
The overall revenue income has been set at Tk聽5.64 lakh crore. Of the amount, Tk 4.99 lakh crore is projected to be generated by the National Board of Revenue.
The finance adviser has projected net loans of Tk 96,000 crore from external sources and Tk 1.25 lakh crore borrowing from domestic sources to meet the deficit accounting for 3.6 per cent of the projected GDP at Tk聽62.44 lakh crore in FY26.聽聽
