Govt approves revised ADP
The government yesterday approved a planning ministry proposal to slash this fiscal year's development budget by 4.8 per cent from the original outlay mainly due to slow implementation of projects funded by foreign assistance.
Use of foreign assistance in projects under the annual development programme (ADP) has been trimmed down to Tk 62,000 crore from Tk 71,800 crore.
Implementing agencies show more interest in spending government allocations rather than foreign assistance for the accountability and transparency conditions attached with the latter, say planning ministry officials.
The government portion for the projects is staying the same at Tk 130,921 crore.
The revised allocation for fiscal 2019-20's ADP is now Tk 192,921 crore, which was Tk 202,721 crore in the original budget.
Already Tk 79,785.86 crore or 37.09 per cent of the original allocation has been spent during the July-February period of the fiscal year.
The revision was endorsed at a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the NEC office at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the capital.
The approval mandates autonomous bodies and corporations of the state, such as the Chattogram port, to spend Tk 8,277.56 crore out of their own pockets for self-development.
This is basically government money and so if the amount is taken into account, the revised development budget amounts to Tk 201,198.56 crore.
There are now 1,743 projects under the revised development budget. Of those, 1,597 are over investments, 145 technical assistance and one Japan Debt Cancellation Fund, which comprises money that Japan provided earlier and now wants to be diverted into other projects.
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