The Budget Session of Parliament begins at 5 PM today.

The National Budget for 2004—2005 fiscal year will be placed in Parliament tomorrow (Thursday). The national budget in Bangladesh is traditionally placed on Thursday every year.

Minister for Finance and Planning M Saifur Rahman will place the national budget in the House. His speech wiill be telecast live on Bangladesh Television (BTV) and the Bangladesh Betar (radio).

This will be the 10th national budget placed by Saifur Rahman, who has been serving as the Finance Minister of four successive BNP governments—the first one led by the late President Ziaur Rahman, the second by the late President Justice Abdus Sattar and third and fourth under the leadership of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia.

This will be the third budget of the present government. The Business Advisory Committee that allocate time for business of Parliament session in the afternoon today before the start of the session. Speaker Barrister Zamir Uddin Sircar will preside the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee.

Sources close to the Business Advisory Committee told The New Nation yesterday that this year’s budget session might last for one and a half months covering about 30 sitting days.

The session is likely to be a stormy one as the main opposition Awami League (AL) is expected to return to Parliament.

The AL’s joining in this session is warranted by its necessity to save the membership of 10 party legislators, including its President and Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina, who could not attend the previous (11th) session.

Sheikh Hasina was abroad when 48 AL legislators led by its senior leader Abdus Samad Azad and Deputy Leader of the Opposition Abdul Hamid Advocate joined session on May 12 ending a boycott of the House for 73 consecutive sitting days.

The AL began the boycott on June 25, 2005 to protest against what it said, hurling of indecorous and abusive words by BNP MPs on Sheikh Hasina on the floor of the House. Those, who joined last session, saved the members from the risk of losing membership due to absence from the House for 90 consecutive sitting days.

Abdul Hamid, however, said yesterday that the AL would neither attend the opening session of the House today nor its members will be present during delivering of the budget speech tomorrow.

After the tomorrow’s session, Sheikh Hasina’s absence from the House along with nine others of her party colleagues will be for 76 consecutive sitting days—14 days short of losing membership, Parliament Secretariat sources said yesterday.

“The Awami League Parliamentary Party (ALPP) will sit soon to decide as to when the party would join the session,” Abdul Hamid said.

An AL Presidium member, who is also an MP, told this correspondent that the main opposition party would join this session. “We will not let our leader (President) lose her membership, when we are retaining it. Besides, we will strongly oppose the politically biased anti-people budget and raise the voice of the people in the House,” he said, preferring anonymity.

Talking to the reporters at his office yesterday, the day before the budget session begins, Minister for Finance and Planning M Saifur Rahman has assured the people that prices of the essential commodities would not increase after the announcement of the new budget.

He, however, emphatically said, “We will have nothing to do if prices of indigenous vegetables like pumpkin, which is not under taxation, is raised.”

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Barrister Moudud Ahmed told this correspondent that besides passing the “Money Bill” (the new budget), this session would also pass three bills, including the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill-2004 and the Trade Union and Workers’ Welfare Committee in EPZ areas Bill-2004.

This session is beginning after a 22-day gap from the previous session that concluded on May 17. The last one was the longest ever session in the history of Bangladesh Parliament over 121 days with 43 working days and witnessed many notable events—passage of 14 bills, including the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

From this session on, Parliament will have representation of a new political party—the Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh (BDB), Mahi B Chowdhury won the by-election to Munshigonj-1 constituency on Sunday last.

Meanwhile, the Jamaat-e-Islami Parliamentary Party will meet today at its Sangsad Bhaban office at 4 PM.