The planning commission has sought time from the prime minister to hold a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) to get the final approval of the draft of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the fiscal 2020-21, commission sources said on Wednesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the commission has approved the draft of ADP for the upcoming fiscal year 2020-21 at an extended meeting of planning commission.
If everything goes well, the national economic council meeting will be held later this month with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
“If the national economic council meeting is not held on time due to ongoing Covid-19 crisis, the draft will be later sent to the primer for the final approval,” officials told The Bangladesh Post on Wednesday.
Contacted Planning Minister MA Mannan on Wednesday told The Bangladesh Post that the draft ADP has been finalised based on the demands of various ministries and divisions, but it is not final.
“We will place the draft to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the NEC meeting. At then it will be finalized what certain amount is allocating for the government’s development budget for next fiscal. Maximum ceiling has been set for the next fiscal, where the ADP size increased by six and a half percent”, he added.
In the draft it has been proposed to allocate 2,05,145 for the government’s Annual Development Program (ADP) in the national budget for fiscal year 2020-21, Mannan said.
Of the total ADP outlay, Taka 1,34,643 crore will come from the local sources while Taka 70,501.72 crore from the foreign sources, he said.
ADP is an organised list of projects in various sectors and allocations for them for a year out of a five-year plan period for implementation of the government's development policies, programmes and investments in the plan.
About 86 percent allocation will be given to the 10 most important sectors, including transport sector.
Of them, the transport sector will be given the highest allocation. The transport will get 25 percent out of 86 percent out of the ten sectors.
Besides, the agriculture and health sectors will also to get the highest priority in the upcoming budget.
Finance Secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder, Planning Secretary Md Nurul Amin, Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Fatima Yasmin, members of planning commission, including Shahin Ahmed Chowdhury) and Mohammad Zakir Hossain, and secretaries of different ministries and divisions attended the extended meeting.
If everything goes well, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal will place his budget proposal for the next fiscal year on June 11 in Parliament.
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 crore to the public administration sector.
A Planning Commission official 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.