Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has described the proposed national budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year as a ‘life-friendly budget’, saying it is intended to provide relief to people across all sections of society while helping Bangladesh overcome its economic challenges.
Addressing Parliament during the concluding stage of the general discussion on the proposed budget on Monday, the Prime Minister said the government wanted to shift the country’s political focus away from the past and towards the future.
“As the party in government, I would like to give this budget a name. I would call it a ‘life-friendly budget’,” he told lawmakers at Jatiya Sangsad.
He said Bangladesh had spent too much time debating past events and argued that people were now looking for discussions centred on future development and long-term progress.
The parliamentary session began at 10:30am under Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad. Opposition Leader Shafiqur Rahman delivered the closing speech of the budget debate before the Prime Minister addressed the House.
Describing the budget as one of the government’s most important policy tools, Tarique Rahman acknowledged that no budget could resolve every economic difficulty. However, he said the administration had prepared what it believed to be a realistic financial plan designed to reduce pressure on citizens.
“We have tried, to the best of our wisdom and judgement, to present a budget that offers at least some relief to people from every class and profession,” he said.
A key point of the Prime Minister’s speech focused on the prices of daily necessities. He said the government had succeeded in preventing the usual rise in essential commodity prices that often followed the announcement of a national budget.
According to the Prime Minister, the decision to withdraw taxes on 61 essential goods had helped keep market prices stable.
“In previous years, prices of many essential commodities would often rise before and after the budget without any apparent reason. By the grace of Allah, we have not witnessed such a situation this year,” he said.
He added that maintaining stable prices for everyday essentials was an important achievement at a time when many households continued to face pressure from the cost of living. The government, he said, believed it had fulfilled part of its responsibility by providing consumers with some relief.
The Prime Minister also outlined the economic difficulties inherited by his administration after taking office on 18 February. He said the government had faced an economy weakened by corruption, financial mismanagement and ineffective policies.
“When we assumed office, we inherited a broken economy. Corruption, looting, mismanagement and flawed policies had severely damaged the country’s economy,” he said.
He pointed to capital flight, sluggish investment, persistently high inflation, weaknesses in the stock market, declining foreign exchange reserves and the depreciation of the taka as some of the major challenges confronting the government.
Referring to the capital market, he said many investors had suffered heavy financial losses in previous years, while poor governance had allowed others to misuse public funds. He also claimed that large-scale money laundering and wasteful spending had severely depleted foreign exchange reserves and contributed to a sharp fall in the value of the national currency.
The Prime Minister criticised what he described as “vanity projects”, arguing that they had resulted in unnecessary domestic and foreign borrowing without generating sufficient returns to repay the debts.
Despite the economic pressures, he said the government was not seeking to use inherited problems as an excuse.
“We do not deny the economic challenges exist, nor do we want to use them as excuses. We want to overcome these challenges through political commitment, effective policies and with the support of the people,” he said.
Tarique Rahman also noted that shortly after taking office, the government had to manage the Ramadan period while ensuring the availability and affordability of essential goods and beginning efforts to stabilise the wider economy.
Members of the ruling party repeatedly thumped their desks in support as the prime minister defended the government’s economic strategy and the priorities outlined in the proposed budget.
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