The pace of government’s spending on development projects for improving living standards remained slow as usual in first seven months of the current fiscal year.
During July-January period of the fiscal year 2014-15, the government spent only 32% or Tk27,163 crore ( including self-finance of different public agencies) out of total Tk80,315 crore allocated for the entire year for development, according to the Planning Ministry.
It was 31% or Tk22,937 crore in the same period a year earlier, according to Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
He said Annual Development Programme (ADP) implementation in the first seven months of this fiscal year is one percentage point higher than the same period a year ago.
However, according to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) data, the ADP fund spending by the government agencies in the current fiscal year during the period was one percentage points lower than that of the previous fiscal year when it was 33%.
The minister, however, did not give details about the progress report of the development projects under the current original ADP.
Replying to a question, he said the Planning Commission has started revising the ADP which could be trimmed down.
The seven-month reading of this fiscal indicates that the remaining 68% of the total ADP size will be implemented in next five months, which is highly unlikely, people familiar with the situation said.
The minister, who was earlier hopeful to spend 100% of entire ADP allocation in the current fiscal year, said: “If the ministries let me know that they would fail to spend the allocated fund, the planning commission would divert the money to other projects.”
His comment came following many ministries and public agencies have already sought to slash from fund allocated for spending in the entire fiscal year, as they are set to spend less due to supply disruption of materials required for implementing several development projects due to non-stop blockade that began from January 5, called by the BNP-led 20-party alliance.
The blockade-affected ongoing development projects include the country’s biggest infrastructure project Padma Bridge, the four-lane Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Maymensingh highways, officials said.
Bridge Division has already sought Tk7,865 crore in the upcoming revised Annual Development Programme (ADP), which is down Tk235 crore from original allocation of Tk8,100 crore.
It is the highest allocation in a development project for the current financial year.
The Bangladesh Bridges Authority, implementing agency of the Padma, has spent Tk2,500 crore out of total disbursement of Tk3,225 crore till January 20, sources said.