The size of the next national budget is likely to be around Tk 64,000 crore, some Tk 6,500 crore up from the outlay of the current one, officials said.

Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman is scheduled to place the budget in Parliament on June 9.

Officials were busy giving the final stitches to the budget documents, targeting to increase the country's tax-GDP ratio from present 10.3 per cent to 15-16 per cent through widening the tax-net, a senior official told the news agency yesterday.

According to published figures, the tax-GDP ratio increased from 8.5 per cent in FY1991-95 to 10.15 per cent in FY 2001-04. The projected ratio for the outgoing fiscal year is 11.2 per cent of the GDP while the PRSP projected a more restricted tax-GDP ratio at 10.7 per cent.

"Tax rates are unlikely to increase, but authorities eye the revenue sources that have so far remained untapped," said the official, adding that the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has so far identified 100,000 potential taxpayers mainly from the business community and professionals.

"Their contribution will contribute a lot to the national exchequer. A cumulative effect of revenue reforms would also help increase revenue earnings during the next fiscal," he said.

Revenue collection grew 13 per cent during the July-April period of the current fiscal as compared to the same period of previous fiscal, but stood wide of the mark set for this year.