Current development budget of the country may be downsized by 7.0 per cent to Tk 2.45 trillion today amid slow-paced implementation of projects.
Officials said Monday the National Economic Council (NEC), headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, would sit at the Planning Commission today (Tuesday) for approving the Revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) for the financial year 2023-24.
A senior planning official has said the NEC is going to cut down the ADP outlay by Tk180 billion or 6.84 per cent to Tk 2.45 trillion from the current size of Tk2.63 trillion.
The NEC in the last FY2023 also had revised ADP by 7.72 per cent to Tk 2.27 trillion from its original Tk 2.46-trillion outlay.
"The extended committee of the PC has already approved the Tk 2.45-trillion RADP for the current fiscal. Now we will place it before the NEC tomorrow. We hope the PM-headed highest economic policymaking body will endorse the development programme," the PC official told the FE on Monday.
Annual development programme is part of the national budget under which the government implements nearly 1600 development projects every year for enhancing economic growth of the nation on a higher trajectory, as Bangladesh prepares for LDC graduation.
In the proposed Tk2.45 trillion worth of RADP outlay, Tk 1.61 trillion will come from government's own resources and the remaining Tk835 billion from external sources as project aid (PA), PC officials said.
In the original outlay, the share from internal resources was Tk 1.63 trillion and from external resources Tk 940 billion. The NEC is likely to trim the development outlay for state-owned autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies to Tk 93.91 billion for the RADP from the current outlay of Tk 116.74 billion.
Considering the allocation of the autonomous bodies and corporations, the overall size of the RADP will be Tk 2.54 trillion, the PC official said.
Another planning official says, "Since the project-execution performance of the ministries and their agencies is still poor, we are forced to cut the original ADP for streamlining its implementation."
According to the IMED, the ADP-implementation rate during first seven months (July-Jan) of the current FY slowed down to only 27.11 per cent-rated lowest in 14 years.
Some key public agencies were lagging far behind their targeted project works, leaving execution in a shambles, the official says.
"This was the worst performance in 14 years as the government agencies even failed to cross the performance rate of the Covid period, the highest impact on development works," he adds.
The implementation of public-works projects lost gear as some big ministries and budget holders, including Health and Shipping Ministries, Bridges Division, and Prime Minister's Office, performed below par during the reporting period, an FE analysis has found.
The members of the NEC, including different cabinet ministers and PC members, will attend today's NEC meeting on a review and revision of development budget.
kabirhumayan10@gmail.com