With government trying hard to find out how the deadly coronavirus pandemic can be protected and its effects mitigated, bloc allocation in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) would be five times higher this year to help people save from harsher economic wounds.
The government has increased bloc allocation this time to cope with staggered timings posed by the deadly virus, said a senior official of the planning ministry on Monday.
This time more than Tk 4,026 crore has been allocated for this purpose, up almost 500 percent higher than the previous time.
Besides, a record amount of Tk 5,796.17 crore has been allocated in the new ADP to address the corona virus crisis, he added.
National Economic Council (NEC) will approve ADP today at a NEC meeting,to be chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he informed.
Economists said the increase of bloc allocation will not suffice, it should be spent with transparency.
Former caretaker government adviser Dr AB MirzaAzizul Islam said, “The bloc allocation is always kept in the budget. Now more has been kept because of it is difficult to guess what is needed in Corona situation.”
The government has given more importance to complete the mega projects within the stipulated time frame as it can play a vital role to stimulate the economic fallouts in the country, said officials at the planning ministry.
However, they said the Ministry of Planning will allocate fund for these mega projects as per the demand of the authorities concerned.
The government plans to increase the size of its ADP by almost 6.34 percent for the upcoming fiscal year 2020-21, an official said.
In the draft it has been proposed to allocate Tk 2,05,145 crore for the government’s Annual Development Program (ADP) in the national budget for fiscal year 2020-21, he informed.
Of the total ADP outlay, Taka 1,34,643crore will come from the local sources while Taka 70,501.72 crore from the foreign sources, he said.
Additional secretary of the Planning Commission KhalilurRahman Khan said, “The draft of the new ADP is final. It’s size is Tk 2,05,145crore. However, the final approval will be given by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.”
He said, “A record amount of bloc allocation has been kept in the new ADP. Any new project of any kind may be taken up to deal with the Corona crisis. Then the money will be spent from the bloc allocation. Considering the national need, the bloc allocation has been kept higher.”
“The health and agriculture sectors are getting the highest importance in the ADP. The concerned ministries and departments are getting more allocations than they wanted”, he mentioned.
A total of Tk 13,033 crore has been allocated for the health sector and Tk 8,424 crore for the agriculture sector, focusing on corona virus control, Khan added.
However, in the new draft ADP, the transport sector got the highest allocation with 25.25 percent of the allocation or Taka 52,183 crore followed by the 2nd highest physical infrastructure sector with Taka 25,795 crore, the 3rd highest power sector with Taka 24,804 crore while the education sector gotthe 4th highest allocation with Taka 23,390 crore.
Besides in the draft new ADP, the science and technology sector got an allocation of Taka 18,458 crore followed by Taka 15,555 crore by the rural development sector, Taka 13,033 crore by the health sector, Taka 8,352 crore by the agriculture sector, Taka 5,527 crore by the water resources sector and Taka 4049 croreby the public administration sector.
The planning commission officials said due to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID- 19) pandemic, the number of development projects in the new ADP will be slight less with 1,588 projects excluding those from the autonomous bodies.