Transport and power sectors may get the highest allocation in the Annual Development Programme as the government has estimated Tk 2 lakh 65 thousand crore for the next fiscal year to run development activities.
Of the estimated cost, Tk 1 lakh 65 thousand crore will be spent from internal resources while the rest of the amount will be met from external resources.
The ADP, which is 8.16 percent higher than that in the current fiscal year, is a part of the national budget through which the government implements development projects every year.
The Planning Commission has recently finalised a draft of the ADP, giving priority in 15 sectors. The proposed draft is likely to be placed before a meeting of the ECNEC on May 16, sources at the Planning Commission said.
Planning Commission secretary Satyajit Karmaker said that the allocation has been made after a continuous discussion with the ministries and divisions.
“Allocation in the proposed draft has been given based on the demand of the ministries, which will be able to complete their ongoing projects immediately,” he said.
Over the ADP, Policy Research Institute (PRI) Executive Director
Ahsan H Mansoor told the Bangladesh Post that the development budget has not expanded against the inflation, rather it has been downsised.
“The size of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) is appropriate according to our capacity. Amid the current economic conditions, there is a limited scope for raising the expenditure. However, proper use of foreign funding should be ensured to implement the projects quickly.”
In a sector wise allocation, the transport and communication sector gets the highest Tk 70, 687 crore while the power and energy sector gets Tk 40,751 crore.
Though the two sectors get the highest allocation in the upcoming fiscal, the allocation is actually lesser than that in the outgoing fiscal.
Record shows that the allocation in the transport and communication sector is Tk 75,944 crore in the current fiscal year. Similarly, the allocation in the power and energy sector is Tk 44,393 crore in the current fiscal.
Besides the two sectors, the allocation in other key sectors, including education and health has also been increased. In the proposed draft, the education sector gets the third highest allocation worth Tk 31,528 crore, health sector Tk 20,682 crore and housing sector Tk 24,868 crore, local government and rural development sector Tk 17986 crore, agriculture Tk 13,219 and industries and financial service sector gets Tk 6,492 crore.
The proposed draft shows that in a project wise allocation, the fourth Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP4) gets the highest allocation. Some Tk 11,056 crore has been given for the fourth Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP4) while the second highest allocation has been proposed for the Rooppur Power Plant, which gets Tk 10503 crore.
In the infrastructure development, some Tk 3,796 crore has been allocated for the Dhaka-Ashulia ExpressWay and MRT-1 project.
Experts, however, stressed the need for utilising the foreign fund by implementing the projects immediately.
Sources say that ministries and divisions placed their demand for the allocation of Tk 2 lakh 76 thousand crore against 1,337 projects. The allocation has been finalised after dropping some projects.