Considering the spending capacity, the Planning Commission is going to reduce the allocation for health sector by about 19 percent or Tk 3,252 crore in the revised ADP.
The health sector is getting the highest priority in tackling the Corona epidemic, a planning commission official said.
The government has opened its hands to provide money, he said adding that, there is a large allocation in the development budget, but the health sector is not able to expend more money even after getting unrestricted opportunities.
As they failed to use the fund, the annual development program (ADP) allocated to this sector is returning almost Tk 3,252 crore, he added.
Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty, secretary of the planning department and a member of the commission's activities department, said, “RADP or revised ADP is usually taken from March to June - for these four months. Here the allocation is based on the demand of the ministries and according to the importance of the project as opposed to different projects.”
We are already held meeting with them, he said, adding that here the ministries have so far finalized their last-term allocations by calculating ADP implementation or expenditure.
“From those whose implementation is less, it is allocated to important projects. The health sector will also be given such an allocation as it wants,” he mentioned.
However, this year, the development allocation for the health sector is Tk 17,306 crore. This is the fourth highest allocation as a sector.
So far, only 13 percent of this huge allocation has been spent.
Most of the money in the health sector in the ADP is in favour of the Department of Health Services and the Department of Health Education and Family Welfare.
Of this, Tk 13,000 crore has been allocated for the healthcare department.
In the last 6 months of July-December, the department has spent only Tk 1,269 crore or 9.43 percent.
Although the expenditure is slightly higher than the allocation of health education and family welfare, it is lower than the national average.
Against the allocation of Tk 2,558 crore, the department has spent Tk 565 crore or 22 percent.
However, the healthcare department has 46 projects this year. There are also two projects related to corona.
The World Bank and AIIB funded the Tk 786 crore Covid-19 Emergency Response and Pandamic Preparedness project.
The Asian Development Bank is assisting in the Tk 1,365 crore for the project.
The health sector also has a “Fourth Health Population and Nutrition Sector Development Program” worth about Tk 1.5 lakh crore.
In the current fiscal year, 58 ministries and departments have been allocated Tk 2.36 lakh crore by ADP.
Of these, the healthcare department received the sixth highest allocation.