Dhaka, June 22 -- Formulating an annual budget has never been easy in Bangladesh, given the plethora of demands and paucity of resources. But 2026-2027 fiscal is perhaps the most challenging time for balancing the two sides of the economy embedded in the annual estimate. A brief resume of the backdrop of the challenges can give some idea about the complexity of the exercise and explain why the budget proposal made for next fiscal year cannot take the task as ' business as usual'.

First of all is the lingering impact of the pandemic of 2022-2023 from which the economy is yet to fully recover. The small and medium enterprises (SME) that were battered during the period have not yet recovered and some of them may have become permanent casual...