The Ministry of Science and Technology has decided to propose a Tk 13.7 billion allocation reduction in the current fiscal year's revised budget due to sluggish implementation of development projects and low revenue mobilisation.
The reduced allocation is Tk 122.03 billion, while the original one was Tk 135.73 billion.
The ministry has decided to propose a 10 per cent cut in the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project allocation. Significant reductions in two of the plant's support projects will be proposed - 65 per cent for external telecommunication network and 44 per cent for nuclear regulatory infrastructure development.
The decisions came from the meeting of the ministry's budget management committee held recently. The ministry's Senior Secretary Md Mokabbir Hossain chaired the meeting. The ministry sent the meeting minutes along with the proposed revised budget to the planning ministry and other government offices concerned.
The meeting minutes revealed the ministry would propose Tk 115.06 billion for development expenditure, 10.71 per cent lower than the original budget of Tk 128.87 billion. Despite this, the ministry will seek a 1.5 per cent higher allocation for operating expenditures because of salary and allowance costs.
A high official of the ministry told The Financial Express the government had decided to reduce project implementation costs by dropping unnecessary components after a proper review.
"Considering slow revenue mobilisation and the economic slowdown, the work on some components will be completed in the next fiscal year, though it was supposed to be finished in FY25," he said.
Officials said the budget management committee meeting had decided to seek Tk 94.54 billion for the Rooppur project in the revised budget, including Tk 4.54 billion from the government exchequer and Tk 90 billion from Russian loans.
The project had an allocation of Tk 105.03 billion in the original Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the current fiscal year. Of the amount, Tk 5.03 billion will come from domestic sources and Tk 100 billion from foreign ones. The allocation will be reduced by Tk 10.45 billion - Tk 0.45 billion from government funds and Tk 10 billion from foreign loans.
Officials said the project's major components had been completed, but some support projects lagged far behind. That is why officials decided to reduce the project's allocations.
According to officials, a support project was introduced in 2022 to develop an external telecommunication system for the power plant with an estimated cost of Tk 3.79 billion. Though Tk 48.2 million has so far been spent, the physical progress is zero per cent.
The ministry proposed revising the support project with a 91 per cent higher cost, but the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council rejected the proposal in its last meeting. The ministry has now decided to reduce this fiscal year's allocation by 64.95 per cent - from the original allocation of Tk 1.84 billion to Tk 645 million.
Meanwhile, re-fixing the allocation at Tk 1.52 billion for another support project to develop nuclear regulatory infrastructure of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority in order to oversee the Rooppur plant's nuclear safety will be proposed, which is 44 per cent lower than the original allocation of Tk 2.7 billion.
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