2024-08-28 08:22:28
In the space of one year, the interest cost of foreign loans taken for various mega projects has increased by 162 percent. This information has been revealed in a recent statistics of the Finance Department.
According to the statistics of the finance department, 11 thousand 602 crore rupees were spent on foreign loan interest payments in the nine months (July-March) of the last financial year 2023-2024. In the previous year in the same period (July-March) in the financial year 2022-2023, 4 thousand 435 crores were spent on interest payments. Interest expenses have increased by 162 percent in a span of one year. In the amount of rupees which is seven thousand 167 crores.
On the other hand, domestic debt interest cost increased by 7 percent during the same period. Among these internal loans, interest on bank sector loans increased by 21 percent. But interest expense from non-banks or savings bonds has turned negative. In the nine months of the last financial year, the interest expense on domestic debt was Tk 59,589 crore. It was 55 thousand 969 crores in the same period in the previous financial year. In the span of one year, the interest expense has increased by 3 thousand 62 crore rupees.
According to the statistics of the Finance Department, in the nine months of the financial year 2023-2024, the money spent on the interest sector was 71 thousand 191 crores. It was 60 thousand 404 crores in the same period of the previous year. Interest expenses have increased by 18 percent or 10 thousand 787 crores in one year.
According to the finance department, in the next three financial years only 4 lakh 5 thousand crore rupees have to be spent on the interest sector. With which it is possible to meet the development expenditure (ADP) of more than one and a half years. In the current financial year, ADP expenditure has been estimated at Tk 2 lakh 65 thousand crores.
This picture of interest expenditure is revealed in the ‘Medium Term Macroeconomic Policy Statement-2024-2025 to 2026-27’ released by the Finance Department.
According to the policy statement in this regard, in the fiscal year 2024-2025 starting from July 1, 1 lakh 13 thousand 500 crores should be spent on the interest sector. Out of this, the interest expense taken from the domestic sector is Tk 93 thousand crores and the interest expenditure on foreign loans is Tk 20 thousand 500 crores. Similarly, the interest expense will increase by 1 lakh 37 thousand crores in the financial year 2025-2026. Out of this, domestic interest expenditure will be Tk 1 lakh 14 thousand crore and foreign interest expenditure will be Tk 23 thousand crore. In the next fiscal year i.e., 2026-2027 it will further increase to one lakh 54 thousand 500 crores. Out of this, domestic interest expenditure will be Tk 1 lakh 28 thousand 500 crore and foreign interest expenditure will be Tk 26 thousand crore.
According to the finance department, the projected interest expenditure of the government in the medium term indicates an upward trend in the government’s expenditure in this sector. According to the interest payment estimate, the interest expense for the fiscal year 2021 was Tk 77 thousand 77 crore. There it will increase to 1 lakh 54 thousand 500 crores in the financial year 2026-2027. Interest payments as a proportion of the total budget are markedly variable. Interest expenditure is reduced from 15.3 percent of the budget in FY 2021-2022 to 12.4 percent in FY 2023-2024 but may increase again to 15.3 percent in FY 2026-2027.