Parliament passed total 5,292 crore78 lakh taka for ICT and telecom sector

Parliament has passed the national budget of Tk 7 lakh 97 thousand crore for the financial year 2024-25. The budget was passed by voice vote in the parliament session held on Sunday (June 30) under the chairmanship of Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury, which will be effective from July 1. Prior to this, the specification will be gazetted subject to the assent of the President.

Finance Minister Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali introduced the Finance Bill in Parliament on Saturday afternoon and it was later passed by Parliament. Today, in the process of passing the budget, the ministers raised a total of 59 approval demands in the parliament, highlighting the rationale of the expenditure of the respective ministries.

Among these, firstly, State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak requested the President to allocate Tk 2,872,280,000 and Tk 2,420,500,000 for the Department of Information and Communication Technology and Posts and Telecommunications Division for the management and development for just starting financial year ending June 30, 2025. The demand was approved by an Oral vote in Parliament. In other words, the State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak got a total allocation of 5 thousand 292 crores 78 lakhs for his two departments.

Earlier, six members of parliament of the opposition raised a total of 251 retrenchment proposals on the justification of the sanction demand. Among them, members of the independent and opposition parties discussed the retrenchment proposals brought in three sanction demands in the Law and Judiciary Department, Secondary and Higher Education Department and Social Welfare Ministry. The retrenchment proposals were later rejected by voice vote.

Although the budget is 7 lakh 97 thousand crore taka, the amount of money accumulated in the specification law is 12 lakh 41 thousand 752 crore 32 lakh 9 thousand taka. Out of this, the amount of money accepted by the parliament is 7 lakh 9 thousand 278 crore 87 lakh 88 thousand taka and the liability on the connected fund is 5 lakh 32 thousand 473 crore 44 lakh 21 thousand taka.

This is the first budget of the Awami League government after coming to power for the fourth consecutive term after winning the 12th National Parliament elections. This budget is also the first for Mahmud Ali as Finance Minister.