<span style="color: black;">The government of Bangladesh has set a target of 8.2 percent GDP growth rate for the Fiscal Year 2020-21. Presenting the budget in the Bangladesh Parliament Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal set a target growth rate of 8.2 percent for the economy for the next fiscal year amid predictions by the World Bank that growth rate is likely to slump to 1.6 percent in the current Fiscal year.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">Placing the Taka 5.68 lakh crore budget proposal in the parliament, the Finance Minister outlined the four pronged strategy of the government to achieve this ambitious target. The strategy includes discouraging luxury expenditure and priority to job creation in government expenditure, creation of loan facilities at subsidized interest rate, expanding social safety net and increasing money supply while balancing the inflationary pressure in the economy.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">Speaking about the health sector, the Minister said that the government has given the highest priority to it with additional allocation and incentives. The budget has allocated Taka 29,247 crore for the health services and health education sector. The budget has also set aside Taka 10 thousand crore to meet emergency requirements arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">The budget has proposed several exemptions in import duty on medical items needed for dealing with the Coronavirus crisis. It has also proposed withdrawal of VAT on COVID 19 test kits, locally manufactured PPEs and medicines needed for Corona treatment.</span><br />''