The national budget worth Tk聽7.9 lakh crore for the 2025-26 financial year was passed on Sunday, with the interim government dropping the money legalisation facility in the real estate sector amid criticism.
The interim government鈥檚 advisory council at a meeting, which was presided over by chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, at the Chief Adviser鈥檚 Office at Tejgoan in the capital Dhaka on Sunday morning passed the FY26 budget, endorsing changes in the fiscal measures.
Among the other changes, the import duty on solar power equipment has been cut to 1 per cent from 10 per cent and the import of heart rings and eye lens has been made duty free for FY26 which will begin on July 1.
It is the first budget under the interim government that assumed power on August 8, 2024, three days after the ouster of the authoritarian Awami League regime in a mass uprising.
Finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed who announced the proposed budget in a televised address in the absence of Jatiya Sangsad on June 2 disclosed the changes at a press briefing at his office at the secretariat in the capital in the afternoon on Sunday.
Terming the overall budget deficit lowest in a decade at 3.62 per cent and the annual development programme relatively a small one in the absence of politically motivated projects, the finance adviser described the new budget measures as an endeavour for changing the trend of relying on borrowing excessively.
The Economic Relations Division in its monthly update released on Sunday showed that the country鈥檚 foreign debt repayments surged by 23.4 per cent to $3.784 billion in the eleven months (July 2024-May 2025) of FY25 compared with those of $3.068 billion in the same period of FY24.
鈥榃e should not overburden the future generations with debts,鈥� said Salehuddin while criticising those who had expected massive changes in fiscal measures left by the Awami League regime before being ousted on August 5, 2024.
鈥榊ou cannot change everything in a single budget,鈥� he added.
The government has aimed at achieving the growth in gross domestic product at 5.5 per cent and the inflation rate at 6.54 per cent in FY26.
The finance adviser has set net loans of Tk 96,000 crore from external sources and Tk 1.25 lakh crore borrowing from domestic聽聽 sources to meet the deficit accounting for 3.6 per cent of the GDP at Tk聽62.44 lakh crore in FY26.
The finance adviser said that the moral ground rather than the criticism was the reason for dropping the undisclosed money legalisation provision on the construction of building on own land and purchasing flats despite repeated requests by the realtors not to revoke the provision.
The interim government, however, has compensated the realtors by cutting the income tax rates on sales of land and flats to 5 per cent, 3 per cent and 2 per cent from 8 per cent, 6 per cent and 4 per cent respectively.
Besides, a general provision for legalising undisclosed money with legal sources with 10 per cent penalty on the maximum 30 per cent tax has been incorporated in the FY26 budget for the taxpayers who failed to disclose their legal incomes in the past years.
Finance Division secretary Khairuzzaman Mozumder and National Board of Revenuer chairman Abdur Rahman Khan were also present at the press briefing.
The NBR chairman said that among other changes, the income tax on private universities, private medical colleges, private dental colleges, private engineering colleges and private information and telecommunication universities was cut to 10 per cent from 15 per cent.
For FY26, the overall revenue income has been set at Tk聽5.64 lakh crore. Of the amount, Tk聽4.99 lakh crore is to be generated by the National Board of Revenue. Of the Tk聽4.99 lakh crore, 36.5 per cent will come from income tax.
The finance adviser said that collection from the income tax had been challenging as out of 18 lakh taxpayers鈥� identification number holders, 12 lakh declared zero tax.
鈥楢ren鈥檛 they earning Tk聽3.5 lakh annually?鈥� questioned the finance adviser.
The finance secretary said that the government had deferred the implementation of the third round measure of phasing out cash incentive on exports until January 1, 2026, as part of the country鈥檚 graduation from the least developed countries鈥� bloc in November 2026.
Besides, the minimum special incentive to public officials has been increased to Tk聽1,500 from Tk聽1,000 and Tk 700 from Tk聽500 for pensioners.
The finance secretary said that they received some 400 opinions on the budget proposals online, with most of them linked to pay hikes and the social safety net programme.
In the absence of parliament, the passage of the national budget will be made effective by promulgating an ordinance.
Responding to a question over a whopping increase in deposits by Bangladeshis in Swiss banks, the finance adviser said they were looking into the matter and that possibly it happened due to fluid political situation after the last general elections in January 2024.
Deposits held by Bangladeshis in Swiss banks surged by 23-fold in a year, to 598.2 million Swiss francs, equivalent to approximately Tk聽8,972 crore by the end of 2024 from 26.4 million francs or Tk聽396 crore at the end of 2023.
