The upcoming budget will be realistic and will not be significantly large, according to Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed. However, efforts will be made to expand trade and commerce to increase people's income.
He said these things after a view-sharing meeting with media representatives, editors and journalists on the pre-budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year held at the conference room of the Ministry of Finance at the Secretariat on Wednesday afternoon.
The Adviser said, “What the impact of the budget is, was mostly said earlier. We will do this and that. This time we will keep an eye on those issues. Apart from this, the budget speech is 200 to 300 pages. This time I said it doesn't need to be more than 50 to 60 pages. The budget will be short.”
In response to a question about LDC graduation, he said, the main thing is our preparation. We have decided to take the preparation. If Bangladesh does not take action, then other countries like Bhutan and some African countries have said that we will be with Bangladesh if it does. So we will take the preparation. If we do not make it on time in 2026, then...
When asked whether he will increase the amount of social security, Salehuddin Ahmed said, we will increase something in the social security sector. And there are several lakhs of undeserving people, if we have to bring them to the community, then we will bring them. However, the allocation for social security, education and IT sectors will be reduced or increased.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
