NEC to finalise Tk 230b revised ADP tomorrow

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FE Report
The government will finalise Thursday the revised annual development programme (ADP) for current fiscal year following a "very poor" project implementation rate, officials said Tuesday.
The National Economic Council (NEC), the highest government body supervising development activities, will sit Thursday at the planning commission in the city to approve the proposed Tk 230 billion revised ADP.
The planning commission has already prepared the draft revised ADP with a cut of Tk 26 billion from the original development budget of Tk 256 billion as the project implementing agencies have so far spent a small amount of the total outlay.
The government ministries and divisions have implemented only 41 per cent of the total Tk 256 billion development budget during ninth month until March of fiscal 2008-09, planning commission said.
In the proposed revised budget, the rural development and rural institution sector would receive highest allocation of Tk 34.12 billion, a planning ministry official said.
The NEC approved last revised ADP in March 2008 offering three months (April 2008-June 2008) to implement the outstanding works of the development projects.
Planning ministry official said after the rural development and rural institution sector, the education and religion sector will get Tk 33.13 billion allocation followed by Tk 27.79 billion to the health, nutrition and family welfare sector in the revised ADP of current fiscal.
He said the power sector will get Tk 27.60 billion worth of allocation in the proposed revised budget keeping some Tk 5.0 billion as block allocation.
Out of the proposed Tk 230 billion revised ADP, Tk 121.73 billion will come from the local sources and Tk 102 billion from the external sources as project aid.
In the Tk 256 billion original ADP budget, Tk 136 billion was estimated to mobilise from the local sources while Tk 120 billion from the foreign donors and lenders.
"The proposed size of the revised development budget this fiscal will be highest in the history. It's a good sign for the country as the public expenditure is growing day by day," the planning commission official said.
The revised ADP outlay in last fiscal was Tk 225 billion, followed by Tk 216 billion in 2006-07, Tk 215 billion in 2005-06 and Tk 205 billion in 2004-5.
The public investment though development budget in Bangladesh is only five to six per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), lowest compared to neighbouring countries.
The government usually slashes the ADP outlay in the third quarter of every financial year because of failure of the implementing agencies to execute their projects in time.