Home ›› 09 Jan 2023 ›› Front
The Planning Commission will give more priority to the agriculture sector in the revised annual development programme (RADP) of FY23 to ensure food security in the country.
“We are now formulating RADP for this fiscal giving more priority to the agriculture sector. We are also giving priority to the agriculture-related power and industries sector,” a senior official of the Planning Commission told The Business Post on Thursday.
Hopefully, NEC will approve the revised programme at the end of February or in the first week of March, he added.
He also said the government has given special importance to agriculture-related projects to increase the production and storage of foods for ensuring food security.
At ECNEC meetings, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has several times asked the authorities concerned to give more priority to the agriculture-related projects for boosting crop production, top government sources said.
Meanwhile, the Planning Commission has asked all ministries and divisions to send their demands for allocating funds in the RADP by January 15.
“After getting recommendations from all ministries and divisions, we will finalise the RADP for this fiscal year,” the official also said.
The commission has prepared an instruction guideline asking all ministries and divisions to implement the ongoing important projects.
According to the instructions, the ministries and divisions have been asked not to undertake any new project at this time.
Joint Chief of Planning Division Nusrat Noman said the commission will prioritise the agriculture sector to ensure food security, keeping the ongoing global recession in mind.
“We need to increase food production to tackle the global crisis. So, we will not reduce the cost of any agriculture-related project in the revised ADP of FY23,” she said, adding that if needed, the commission will allocate more funds to the agriculture sector.
Asked about reducing the size of ADP FY23, the official said after getting recommendations from the ministries and divisions the commission will decide what to do.
The government approved Tk 2.46 lakh crore ADP outlay for the financial year (FY) 2022-23 with 47 projects under the agriculture sector. Tk 4138 crore has been allocated for implementing the projects.
Of the total allocation, around Tk 1.53 lakh crore (62.21 per cent) will be provided from the national treasury and Tk 93,000 crore (37.79 per cent) from project assistance, said sources from the planning commission.
They said 62 ministries and divisions, including transport, power, energy, education, health and rural development sectors will submit their recommendations to the commission.
Meanwhile, the original ADP allocation was of Tk 2,25,324 crore for fiscal 2021-22. The commission trimmed Tk 17,774 crore from the original ADP allocation which was 7.87 per cent less than the original figure.
