The National Economic Council (NEC) has approved a revised annual development program (RADP) of Tk 1,97,643 crore for the current financial year, keeping the highest priority to poverty alleviation projects.
The approval came from a meeting of the NEC held at its conference room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister chaired the meeting through video conferencing from her official Ganobhaban residence.
Ministers and state ministers attended the meeting while Planning Commission members and secretaries concerned were present.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Division secretary Mohammad Jainul Bari said in the RADP, the transport sector got the highest allocation with 24.90 per cent or Tk 49,213 crore.
It was followed by the 2nd highest allocation to physical planning, water supply and housing sector with Tk 26,492 crore, the power sector with Tk 21,945 crore while the education and religion sector got an allocation of Tk 24,572 crore, he added.
Besides, the Science and ICT Sector got an allocation of Tk 11,576 crore, he mentioned
It was followed by Tk 18,290 crore to the rural development and rural institutions sector, Tk 14,922 crore to the health, population and family welfare sector, Tk 7,734 crore to the agriculture sector, Tk 6,709 crore to the water resources sector, Tk 3,500 crore to the industries sector, he said.
Bari said Tk 7,501.72 crore were cut from the original ADP size of Tk 2,05,145 crore for the current fiscal year.
“Out of the total RADP outlay, Tk 1,34,643 crore will come from the local sources while Taka 63,000 crore from the foreign sources,” said the Planning Secretary.
The NEC also approved Tk 11,628.90 crore against 101 projects of the autonomous bodies and corporations, he said adding that, incorporating the funding of the autonomous bodies and corporations, the size of the overall RADP for the current fiscal year totalled Tk 2,09,271.90 crore.
The number of projects in the RADP totalled 1785 including 1640 investment projects, 145 technical assistant projects. Besides, incorporating 101 projects of autonomous bodies and corporations, the total number of projects reached 1886.
Jainul said that Tk 7,501.72 crore were trimmed from the portion of the foreign source of the ADP.
He said that at the very outset of the meeting, the NEC congratulated the Prime Minister as the UN CDP has given its final recommendations over the graduation of Bangladesh from the LDC status.
Answering a question, he said that some 33 ministries and divisions had demanded of the planning commission for reducing their allocations while some 23 ministries and divisions had demanded raising their allocations in the RADP.
Jainul said that the premier also stressed the need for conducting necessary works in the dry season for preventing river erosion, giving all-out efforts to maintain the momentum of the economy despite the shock of COVID-19, continuing with the ongoing vaccination Programme, boosting food and agricultural production so that the essential items remain within the reach of commoners.
Revealing the implementation status of the ADP during the July-January period of the current fiscal year, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) Secretary Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty said the executing agencies could spend Tk 61,049 crore during this period with an implementation rate of 28.45 per cent.
The executing agencies spent Taka 68,980 crore in the same period of the last fiscal year (FY20) with a utilization rate of 32.07 per cent.
Pradip also informed that the RADP implementation rate in the last fiscal year (FY20) reached 80.39 per cent with an expenditure of Tk 1,61,740.61 crore.
Answering another question, he said that the project execution often delays due to matters related to land acquisition while the IMED always recommend for “no-cost” time extension of projects.
The NEC meeting also decided to reorganize the concerned sectors of development projects to 15 from the existing 17.