Spl body for making road fund functional

A special committee has put forward a set of recommendations to transfer the money collected from different road-related sources to the newly formed road fund aiming to make it functional.
Officials said the committee formed in line with the directions of the finance ministry recommended creating either fresh code or using institutional code to transfer the money from proposed over 20 sources.
The committee also recommended opening of a new account with any scheduled bank in the name of road fund or transferring total funds from the government's consolidated fund by earmarking road fund.
"We have worked on road fund management in different countries including India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and placed the recommendations to make the long-awaited fund operational," said an official involved in Road Maintenance Fund.
He said these recommendations will be submitted to the Road Maintenance Fund Board for taking necessary action.
Road maintenance fund was formed after the Road Maintenance Fund Board Bill was passed in the parliament on July 14, 2013 for proper maintenance, repair and renovation of roads under the Roads and Highways Department (RHD).
Since then, an autonomous board, comprising six representatives from both public and private sectors, was supposed to work.
However, sources said the board is apparently not working as meetings are hardly held to find ways in collecting and spending money, initially estimated at approximately Tk 20 billion a year.
It is learnt that the committee's guideline has been sent to the RHD as it is the secretariat for placing it to the board.
The board will then send it to the ministry of finance (MoF) for taking decision in this regard.
The MoF in an inter-ministerial meeting on May 11, 2014 recommended forming the committee for placing guideline to the ministry.
The committee headed by additional secretary of Road Transport and Highways (RTH) Division held six meetings during the last two years and placed the guideline to the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridge (MoRTB).
Local and foreign consultants recommended formation of a road fund to manage regular funds for the road maintenance work.
Sources said since the fund was made effective at the end of 2013 through a gazette notification, the MoRTB sought a code from the MoF to officially transfer the road-related money to the fund.
But the ministry is delaying the process of transferring the funds of estimated Tk 20 billion now collected mainly as tolls and fees from transport sector.
According to the Act, non-tax revenues from RHD and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) in the form of road tax, motor vehicle tax, motor fitness fees, route permit, registration and licence fees, road cutting and utility fees, and road penalties etc are among the options recommended for collecting the money for road fund.
The board members include secretaries of road, rail and bridge divisions, members of infrastructure department of the Planning Commission and heads of BRTA and RHD, a teacher of civil engineering department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), and presidents of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and the Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI).
RHD now gets around Tk 13-14 billion from MoF by placing demands for the fund with deposit of money from related sources.
The country has over 22,000 kilometres of roads under RHD, and a significant portion of the roads became unfit for movement after 2010.
Road fund is now a popular concept in many countries across the world to carry out road network development, repair and maintenance work. There was pressure from development partners to form such a fund in the country.
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