Jatiya Party (Ershad) and a few other small opposition parties were present in the House during the passage of the budget which was placed in parliament on June 9.

The FY06 budget outlines a gross expenditure, including revenue and development spending, of Tk 81,428 crore and a net expenditure of Tk 64,383 crore.

This budget happens to be the last budget that the BNP-led four-party alliance government will have to implement.

The present government will present another budget next year before its expiry in October but it will be executed by three governments including the present one.

The budget for FY06 has been described by many as an election budget as the ministry-wise allocation shows the highest Tk 6,013 crore allocation goes to the LGRD ministry.

The finance minister however said on Wednesday that they had scripted the budget that would build a bright future for the country, alleviating poverty and creating new jobs.

The education ministry has received Tk 5,659 crore allocation, defence Tk 5,075 crore, communications Tk 4,900 crore, food Tk 4,508 crore and health ministry Tk 4,240 crore.

The budget has kept Tk 22,545 crore under the finance division to be spent for investment and capital expenditure purposes.

In absence of the main opposition members, the lawmakers of the Jatiya Party and Krishak Sramik Janata League participated in the process of passing the budget.

They criticised the government for wastage of money, corruption in the public administration, extra-judicial killings, and lengthy process of disposing of pending cases.

Ministers present in the House, however, said sufficient measures have been taken to address the problems and people are getting benefits from the government's initiatives.

Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed and State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar spoke in the House.

Discussion on the proposed budget began on June 15. A total of 88 lawmakers took part in the discussion in 12 working days.

The AL lawmakers on Wednesday staged protest inside the parliament building waving black flags in protest against the budget what they termed a budget of black money.

The main opposition also enforced a countrywide dawn- to-dusk hartal yesterday, as the government did not meet their 13-point proposal for amendment to the budget.

The budget session was adjourned yesterday until July 4.