The national budget for the upcoming 2024-2025 fiscal year, presented today (6 june) with the main slogan "March Towards Smart Bangladesh Following the Path of Sustainable Development," mentions the word "smart" 49 times in its 2012-page document.
Despite the prominence of the slogan and discussions, the "Smart Bangladesh" initiative, which was part of the Awami League's election manifesto, has been allocated only Tk100 crore in the new budget.
Even though the same amount was allocated for this sector in the FY24’s budget, there hasn't been any noticeable spending on related activities.
In his budget speech, the finance minister highlighted various technology-driven initiatives in tax collection, government expenditure management, electricity supply, and education programs. He also mentioned several tax breaks and incentives for the ICT sector.
“To build a Smart Bangladesh, efforts are ongoing to establish an uninterrupted high-speed internet and transmission network across the country,” he said.
Through the Optical Fiber Network Development Project of BTCL, network improvements and expansions are being carried out to make the country ready for 5G, he added.
He also mentioned that to strengthen the foundation of 'Smart Bangladesh' in the financial sector, letters of intent have been issued for two digital banks, with plans to increase the number of digital banks in the future.
Highlighting the Smart Bangladesh initiative in the tax structure, he said, “Income earned in 17 sectors including AI-based solution development, software development, blockchain-based solution development, robotic process outsourcing, software as a service, cybersecurity service, digital data analytics, and mobile application development services will be tax-free until 2027.”
Moreover, since 2009, over 33,000 multimedia classrooms and over 11,000 computer labs have been established in selected educational institutions, he said.
“Work is also in progress to create another 65,000 classrooms and 12,000 labs,” said the finance minister.
He also acknowledged that due to the use of technology in electricity production, distribution, and billing management, system loss has decreased.
