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Subsidy bills push up budget spending

Rejaul Karim Byron
A huge spending on subsidy has pushed up government's budget expenditure by 58 percent in the first six months of the current fiscal year compared to the same period last year.
Such expenditure rose by only 14 percent in the same period last year.
The government spent Tk 62,076 crore in July-December of the current fiscal year, out of its entire year's budget at Tk 163,590 crore, according to a finance ministry report on the implementation of budget in the first six months.
The report is likely to be placed in parliament today.
Non-development expenditure shot up by 70 percent, while development expenses went up by 23 percent during July-December over the same period last year.
However, non-development expenditure increased by 13 percent and development expenditure by 17 percent in the six-month period last year.
In the first six months of the current fiscal year, Tk 49,373 crore was spent on non-development budget, against an allocation of Tk 117,590 crore for the entire year.
The development expenditure during the period this year was Tk 12,703 crore, while the allocation for the entire year wasTk46,000 crore.
A finance ministry official said the demand from different ministries is far more than the budgetary allocation on subsidy in the current year.
The allocation on subsidy in the total budget wasTk20,447 crore, according to finance ministry statistics. The ministries have demanded Tk 40,000 crore.
In the first three months of the current fiscal
year, Tk4,080 crore was spent on subsidy for Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, Power Development Board and the agriculture sector.
No money was spent on subsidy in these areas during the same period last year.
The official said the expenditure on subsidy increased further in the first sixmonths this year.
Though the prices of power and fuel were hiked several times, the government will still need to spend a big amount on subsidy for these sectors, the official said.
So the fuel and electricity prices are likely to see further hikes within the current fiscal year, he added.
Another reason behind the rising expenditure is the failure of some ministries to utilise foreign assistance in their development projects and banking much on local resources
The government's spending on interest payment is also on the rise, which in turn is fuelling the non-development expenditure.
However, the finance ministry official said the government's spending didnotspeedup much compared to abiggeroutlay thegovernmenthas taken.
Though the development expenditure increased slightly, only 27 percent of the allocation was spent.