DHAKA, June 12: Bangladesh Finance Minister Saifur Rahman on Thursday unveiled a 519.80 billion taka ($8.96bn) national budget for the fiscal year due to start July 1 projecting a rise by 18.4pc from the outgoing year.

The proposed budget projected a 16.2pc increase in revenue income by expanding the existing tax base net in the face of dwindling foreign aid and demand for development expenditure.

Rahman said last year the percentage of GDP was limited to 4.4pc and projected a growth of 5.5pc in the new year.

“A major part of the proposed development budget and more than one-third of the allocation in the non-development budget for 2003-04 will be spent on programmes directly and indirectly linked to poverty reduction,” Rahman told the opposition-boycotted parliament.—AFP