To tackle the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government will continue the special allocation in the national budget for the upcoming 2022-23 financial year. But it will be Tk 5,000 crore — half of the current fiscal’s allocation.
According to Finance Ministry sources, the government is going to cut the next fiscal’s allocation in half since Covid infections are lower than ever and daily life and businesses have almost returned to normal in recent times.
Tk 10,000 crore block allocations were kept in the outgoing fiscal’s budget and the year before to manage the necessities caused by the pandemic and other emergencies.
But since the allocations were not spent fully in both fiscals, coupled with the current low Covid infection rate, the government has decided to half the allocation in the next one, said ministry sources.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal is set to table a Tk 6,77,864 crore budget for FY2022-23 in parliament on June 9, with a projected GDP size of Tk 44,12,849 crore.
A top ministry official said the government was very concerned with maintaining health security when the pandemic broke out in the country back in March 2020. The block allocation of Tk 10,000 crore in FY21 and FY22 helped meet the emergency health security demands created by the pandemic.
Since the daily infection rate is now lower than 1 per cent and the specialized Covid hospitals have been closed, the necessity for such a high allocation has diminished, said the official.
However, the official added, Tk 5,000 crore block allocation will be kept in the next budget to tackle any emergencies since Bangladesh is yet to get rid of Covid for good and the situation is getting worse in some countries, including China.
Besides, the finance official said the allocation could even be used for tackling any possible post-Covid emergency also—be it health related emergency, or financial sector associated problem.
The country has been logging fewer and fewer Covid deaths for a while now. On Saturday, one death was recorded after 30 days by the health authorities. On Monday, two more deaths were also recorded.
However, fresh Covid cases are still being recorded every day but the number is very low compared to the same time in 2021 or 2020. On Monday, 31 new patients were registered.
