The National Economic Council (NEC) on Tuesday approved a Tk197,643 crore evised Annual Development Program (RADP) for the current fiscal year keeping highest priority to the transport sector.
The approval came from a meeting of the NEC held at its conference room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting through video conferencing from her official Ganabhaban residence.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Division Secretary Mohammad Jainul Bari said that Tk7,501.72 crore were cut from the original ADP size of Tk205,145 crore for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.
“Of the total RADP outlay, Tk134,643 crore will come from local sources while Tk63,000 crore from foreign sources,” said the planning secretary.
He said the NEC also approved Tk11,628.90 crore against 101 projects of the autonomous bodies and corporations. Incorporating the funding of the autonomous bodies and corporations, the size of the overall RADP for the current fiscal year totalled Tk209,271.90 crore.
The number of projects in the RADP totalled 1,785 including 1,640 investment projects, 145 technical assistant projects. Besides, incorporating 101 projects of the autonomous bodies and corporations, the total number of projects reached 1,886.
Jainul said while framing the RADP, Tk7,501.72 crore were trimmed from the foreign sources portion of the ADP.
He said 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.
He said some 442 projects have been kept for completion in the RADP for the current fiscal year while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the authorities concerned to complete those projects within the current fiscal year.
Jainul said the in the future, the projects which would be decided by the NEC for completion within a certain fiscal year would have to be completed within that fiscal year and there would be no such time extension unless there is a valid reason.
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Answering to a question, he said some 33 ministries and divisions had demanded of the planning commission for reducing their allocations while some 23 ministries and divisions had demanded for raising their allocations in the RADP.
About the directives from the premier, Janinul said Sheikh Hasina directed the authorities concerned to speedily complete the projects within the stipulated timeframe.
Besides, the prime minister renewed her directives that the project directors should have to remain in their project sites while one project director should not remain in charge of more than one projects.
Implementation status of ADP
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 Tk61,049 crore during this period with an implementation rate of 28.45%.
The executing agencies spent Tk68,980 crore during the same period of the last fiscal year (FY20) with an utilization rate of 32.07%.
Pradip also informed that the RADP implementation rate in the last fiscal year (FY20) reached 80.39% with an expenditure of Tk161,740.61 crore.
Answering a question, he said that the project execution often delays due to the 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.
In the RADP, the transport sector got the highest allocation with 24.90% or Tk49,213 crore followed by the 2nd highest physical planning, water supply and housing sector with Taka 26,492 crore (13.40%), the power sector with Tk21,945 crore (11.10%) while the education and religion sector got an allocation of Tk24,572 crore (12.43%).
Besides, the Science and ICT Sector got an allocation of Tk11,576 crore (5.86%) followed by Tk18,290 crore (9.25%) to the rural development and rural institutions sector, Tk14,922 crore (7.55 %) to the health, population and family welfare sector, Tk7,734 crore (3.91%) to the agriculture sector, Taka 6,709 crore (3.39%) to the water resources sector, Tk3,500 crore (1.77%) to the industries sector.
Among the Ministries and Divisions, Local Government Division got the highest allocation of Tk 34,170 crore followed by Road Transport and Highways Division with Tk25,761 crore, Power Division with Tk21,935 crore, Ministry of Science and Technology with Tk10,904 crore, Ministry of Railways with Tk 11,988 crore, Health Services Division with Tk11,979 crore, Secondary and Higher Education Division with Tk9,685 crore, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education with Tk10,686 crore, and the Ministry of Water Resources with Tk7,365 crore.
