Bangladesh
3 years ago

Planning Commission proposes slashing down development budget by Tk 75b

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Illustrative photo

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The Planning Commission (PC) on Thursday finalised the draft of Revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) for the current fiscal year (FY), reducing the allocations by Tk 75 billion to Tk 1.97 trillion, officials said.

They said the final draft would be placed before the NEC meeting which is expected to be held on March 2 for revising the current ADP due to the lower implementation rate of development projects.

Cutting the highest amount from the available foreign aid funds, the extended committee of the PC recommended revision of the Tk 2.05 trillion ADP, an official at the PC told the FE.

However, the PC kept unchanged the local resources (GoB fund) of Tk 1.34 trillion to meet the development expenditure, he added.

The extended committee trimmed the project aid (foreign aid) by Tk 75.02 billion to Tk 630 billion for the FY2020-21, the PC official added.

"We've already drafted the RADP for the current fiscal. It will be placed before the NEC meeting on March 2 for getting approval," another senior PC official told the FE.

He said the current ADP outlay is likely to be trimmed to Tk 1.97 trillion as the extended committee of the PC proposed a revision by lowering the allocations.

According to the PC, the transport sector will remain on top of the allocation list in the RADP too.

Currently, the transport sector has the highest allocation of Tk 535.68 billion, 24.96 per cent of the total Tk 2.05 trillion outlay in the original ADP.

The infrastructure planning, water supply and housing sector had been proposed to get the second highest and the power sector third highest allocations in the RADP, PC officials said.

They said the PC had been forced to revise down the ADP as the ministries and agencies failed to perform in executing the development programme.

According to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), the government agencies spent Tk 610.48 billion, only 28.5 per cent of the ADP outlay, during the first seven months (Jul-Jan) of the current FY.

The PC officials said some 156 more projects had been included with the current 1,635 approved projects in the proposed RADP for implementation in the current FY.

Meanwhile, the extended committee of the PC has also finalised the ADP allocations for the autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies of the public sector at its meeting on Thursday.

It proposed to increase the allocations to Tk 115 billion in the RADP from that of original Tk 94.66 billion in the ADP, the PC officials said.

In the FY2020, the government revised the ADP outlay to Tk 1.93 trillion from that of Tk 2.02 trillion in original outlay.

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