Bangladesh, May 26 -- In a few weeks from now, Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury will lay down Bangladesh's 54th National Budget. The first since the BNP returned to power.

It is a critical one for the new Government.

Although the economy has grown significantly in size, the Government's fiscal capacity has not strengthened at a similar pace. The Finance Minister has the unenviable task of funding extra public sector investments and facilitating economic growth in the face of rising debt, weak revenue mobilisation and institutional constraints.

Against this challenging background, such is the dependence on the country's largest source of government revenues - the cigarette sector - that it must be handled carefully in the ...