RADP gets 18pc lower allocations

The Planning Commission has proposed a Tk 540 billion Revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) for the current fiscal (2013-14) cutting the original allocations by 18 per cent. The ADP for the FY 2014 is Tk 658.72 billion.
Planning Commission (PC) officials said they are providing higher allocations to power, transport and local government sectors that need substantial investments for developing major infrastructure in the country.
The proposed revised allocation is Tk 118.72 billion lower than that of the Tk 658.72 billion current outlay in the ADP.
"The extended committee of the Planning Commission will finalise the outlay of the RADP. The meeting is expected to be held early March," a senior PC official told the FE.
After this, the proposed RADP would be placed before the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, expected to be held within this month for getting approval, he added.
According to the PC, the government is expected to provide Tk 328 billion from its own exchequer and Tk 212 billion from the external resources (project aid) in the Tk 540 billion proposed RADP.
The Power Division is likely to get highest allocation of nearly Tk 77.5 billion, a PC official said.
The Communications Ministry is set to get Tk 49 billion outlay and the Railway Ministry about Tk 30 billion in the proposed RADP, he added.
The PC started preparing the RADP a couple of months back as the government's project executing agencies had failed to spend money at an expected level in the first half of the current fiscal.
In the original Tk 658.72 billion ADP, the government had given highest allocations for local government, power and transport sectors to improve development infrastructure and cut the country's poverty rate.
"We have completed the revision of the ADP restructuring allocations for ministries and divisions under different sectors. Now we will place it before the NEC," another PC official said.  
He said they would also provide some 'block allocations' in the RADP so that the development projects, to be approved after finalisation of the revised development budget, could get adequate fund allocations in the remaining period of the current fiscal.
In the original Tk 658.72 billion ADP for the current fiscal, the government had kept aside Tk 4.54 billion as block allocations for special priority projects.
In the last fiscal 2012-13, the government cut the development budget by 46.77 billion to Tk 503.66 billion for executing the projects revising the original Tk 550 billion ADP.