How to read the budget
by Asjadul Kibria

THE annual national budget of Bangladesh is actually the financial statement of the government intended for a fiscal year from July 1 of the current year to June 30 of the next year. In the Parliament the finance minister doesrit present the national budget. What he actually presents is the annual financial statement and finance bill. The budget consists of two broad components namely, consolidated funds and public account of the republic. These are not actually separate entities but distinguished by differences in receipts and disbursements. Both represent inflow and outflow of funds from 'the exchequer'. The overall balance of the budget, its surplus or deficit is represented by the difference between the total receipts and expenditure of fund and account together. The Constitution of Bangladesh entrusts authorities concerned with preparing the budget and making expenditure decisions. Article 87, 89, 90, 91 and 92 make it mandatory to prepare Annual Financial Statement and Bill of Appropriation.

To know and understand the budget, at first one should go through the Budget in Brief. The small' booklet includes different tables such as details of revenue receipts, revenue expenditure, economic analysis of revenue expenditure, foreign grants and loan receipts, summary of food account, development expenditure by ministry/division etc.
Moreover, there are some graphical representatiorrs of development and revenue budgets.

However, to get more details of budgetary allocation, one would have to go through the Annual Financial Statement, which is summarized as Budget in Brief.

Again, to find out details of the government's real allocation of expenditure that is also known as revenue expenditure, the Demands for Grants and Appropriation (non-Development) is the relevant source. The document provides information on real allocation for different ministries and divisions of the state.

But the revenue and development expenditures should be carefully interpreted. The revenue expenditure is the government's list of expenses for salary and allowances, repair and maintenance, establishment and others. In other words, the revenue budget is especially meant for running the government for the immediate present. On the other hand, development expenditure includes construction and others. The fund for development budget is channeled through different programmes while revenue funds are transferred directly. The development budget relates mostly to investment involving a longer period of time. Consequently the ADO is called public investment plan.
Unfortunately, the presented documents of the budget are quite complex to understand. It is mainly due to the nontransparent mode and attitude in preparing the budget. It is quite difficult for anyone to find out an answer of a question from the documents. One could of course resort to some techniques.

Up and down

A large number of people are solely interested in the price fluctuations of different products as a consequence of tax incidences. To find that out one has to go through the 2nd part of the budget speech. The annexure of the document lists products undergoing a change in their tariffs.
Income tax is another point of mass interest. Here again the annex provides a list showing proposed tax rates on different levels of income. But, annex tables alone help little unless one has earlier gone through the descriptive part, which is divided into two parts, namely direct and indirect taxes. The best way to understand tax measures and incidences through budget is to tally the annexure tables with description.

A point of exercise: Allocation for Education

Unless there is a specific point in mind, it becomes especially difficult to explain where the different information could be found. In order to illustrate how to read the budget.the Education sector is being taken as an example.

This exercise is illustrated based on last years budget documents but by and large should remain the same in the current as well. The budgetary allocation for a specific ministry of sector has to be put together with information from different documents. The Budget in Brief and a look into ,the Statement II titled Broad Details of Revenue Expenditure helps as a primary guide. 'Education and Technology' is the obvious heading to look into. There are three sub-divisions (Primary and Mass Education Ministry, Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and ICT), which together make up the complete account.

As for development allocation, the Development Expenditure by Ministry/Division sheds further light under which the sub-head titled 'Education and Technology' is particularly relevant. Combining the two figures will elicit the total budgetary allocation for education and technology in general.

Now, if one wonders whether the budgetary allocation for government colleges have increased would have to look under the ministry of education since they are under the ministry's jurisdiction. Within the Annual Financial Statement the 'Consolidated Nnd: NonDevelopment Expenditure' would contain the relevant information. One should keep in mind that the figure found here is also available in the Budget in Brief.

But this alone does not answer the specific question. The document, Demands for Grants and Appropriation (non-Development) includes the ministry of education, which in turn has separate section with secondary and higher secondary education including a separate head for government colleges. There are two other columns beside it with the proposed and revised figures for the year 2002-03 and 2002-03. These three columns together would indicate whether the allocation for the last fiscal was downward or upward revised and whether the allocation for the next fiscal increases from that amount.