NEC approves Tk 2.3t ADP for FY'26

The National Economic Council (NEC) on Sunday approved Tk 2.3 trillion worth of Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the upcoming 2025-26 fiscal year (FY).

The amount is 13.2 per cent lower than the original outlay worth Tk 2.65 trillion for the current fiscal year (2024-25) while it is 6.48 per cent higher than the revised ADP (RADP) of Tk 2.16 trillion.

Of the total, the government will provide Tk 1.44 trillion from its own exchequer while another Tk 860 billon would be available from external sources as loans and grants.

With the spending of Tk 86 billion from the own funds of autonomous bodies and state-owned corporations, the total size of the ADP for the next fiscal year stands at Tk 2.39 trillion.

The NEC meeting was chaired by Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the NEC auditorium in the capital, Planning Adviser Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud briefed newsmen after the meeting.

The Planning Adviser said the overall national budget, including the development budget, will be modest in the upcoming 2025-26 fiscal year.

"The next budget is aimed at restoring fiscal disciplines," he said, adding that it would not be an 'irresponsible budget'.

He further said: "Though the size may be smaller, it will be realistic and implementable."

The Planning Adviser said the main objective of the government is to ensure sustainable budget management with increase in the revenue while the budget deficit would be kept below 4 per cent of the GDP.

He also said the government will not implement budget by printing money or borrowing a large amount.

"Though the impact of printing money is not visible immediately, it would eventually fuel inflation. Likewise, any increase in salaries will also have inflationary effects," said the Planning Adviser.

He said the development allocations for the health sector have not increased as per the demands.

He further said despite developing the infrastructure, the healthcare sector still lacks adequate doctors and skilled human resources.

"Operating expenses in both the health and education sectors will be covered up, and these sectors will receive priority in the revenue budget," he said.

Highlighting the long-standing issue regarding the delay in the projects implementation, the Planning Adviser said all the projects in the ADP are ongoing.

Delays in the project implementation have become excessive, while some of them are being unnecessarily dragged out, he mentioned.

"There are some projects that I can neither swallow nor discard as those are poorly planned from the beginning," he said.

Citing example of Karnaphuli Tunnel, the advisor said "I still do not know where it leads. Why was it built? After crossing the tunnel, it's like entering a desert."

Referring to the Dhaka-Gazipur BRT project, he said the project already costs Tk 30 billion and caused immense public sufferings.

"Only 58 per cent of the project works are completed and buses have not even been purchased yet," he said, adding that another Tk 30 billion would be required for the purpose.

Allocation for salaries and allowances of teachers will be increased in the upcoming budget, said Dr. Wahiduddin said, adding that arrears of retirement and welfare allowances from the past five to six years would be cleared.

The transport and communication sector has received allocation of Tk 589.73 billion in the next fiscal year, which is 25.64 per cent of the ADP outlay and highest among 15 development sectors.

The power and energy sector received the second highest ADP allocation of Tk 323.92 billion, followed by Education sector with Tk 285.57 billion.

Housing and Community Amenities sector ranked the fourth with getting allocation of Tk 227.76 billion and the health sector secured the fifth position with allocation of Tk 181.48 billion.

The local government division has been allocated Tk 360.99 billion in the next fiscal year, highest among all of the ministries and divisions of the government.

However, the ADP allocation in favor of the division has been reduced by 0.47 per cent in comparison with the RADP allocation in the current fiscal year.

The Road Transport and Highways Division received the second highest Tk 323.3 billion in the next ADP while the Power Division gets Tk 202.84 billion and the Secondary and Higher Education Division Tk 136.25 billion.

The ADP for the upcoming fiscal year includes a total of 1,143 projects, 969 of them are investment projects while 19 are survey projects and 97 are technical assistance projects.

The next ADP also contains 58 development projects to be financed from the own sources of the implementing agencies.

In addition, 990 unapproved new projects have been included, of which 754 would be financed by the government and 36 by autonomous bodies while 200 projects would be implemented with foreign loan support.

The ADP also includes 79 projects under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and a list of 228 projects from the Climate Change Trust Fund.

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