Over the past seven years, this expense has almost tripled. In the budget announcement for the fiscal year 2022-23, a proposal was made to allocate Tk 80,375 crore for interest payments. This expense will increase to Tk 1,02,376 crore in the coming fiscal year. As a result, the government’s expenditure on various loans has increased by Tk 19,100 crore in just one year. The government has taken out a large amount of loans over the past decade for the development of the country’s infrastructure. In addition, the country’s internal sources, such as the Bangladesh Bank and savings certificates, have also been used to meet the budget’s operational expenses. As a result, the expenses associated with interest payments on these loans have been increasing.
According to an analysis of the Medium-Term Macroeconomic Framework (MTMF), in the 2016-17 fiscal year, expenses for interest payments amounted to Tk 35,300 crore. The following fiscal year saw an increase in this expense to Tk 41,800 crore. In the budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year, expenses for interest payments amounted to Tk 57,400 crore, which increased to Tk 70,600 crore in the following fiscal year. However, due to the slowdown in the economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, expenses for interest payments have decreased slightly in the 2021-22 fiscal year. The expense for this account in that fiscal year was Tk 68,600 crore, which increased to Tk 71,200 crore in the following fiscal year. For the upcoming fiscal year, expenses for this account are projected to be Tk 80,375 crore. It is expected that in the coming fiscal year, this expense will increase to Tk 1,02,000 crore. If this happens, expenses for interest payments will have almost tripled in just seven years.