Home ›› 10 May 2023 ›› Front
The government has finalised a Tk 263,000-crore annual development programme (ADP) for the fiscal year 2023-24 which is 6.8 per cent higher than the current fiscal, said officials at the Planning Commission.
In the last fiscal year, the size of ADP was Tk 246,066 crore. However, the transport sector is likely to get the highest allocation in the next fiscal year’s ADP.
If the funds to be set aside for the state-owned enterprises are included, the size of the development budget will be Tk 274,000 crore which is 7 per cent higher than the current ADP.
“The National Economic Council (NEC) is likely to approve the ADP for the next fiscal year at a meeting that will take place on May 11 at its conference room with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair,” a senior planning ministry official told The Business Post.
Due to higher expenses on subsidies, dollar crisis and interest payment, the government has increased the ADP allocation slightly for the upcoming fiscal year, he said.
In the original ADP outlay, Tk 94,000 crore will come as foreign assistance while Tk 169,000 crore will come from the government exchequer.
In FY23, the government had set a foreign fund utilisation target of Tk 93,000 crore to ease dollar crunch. As the utilisation rate is not satisfactory, it plans to increase the size by Tk 1,000 crore to Tk 94,000 crore.
The NEC approved the Revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) of Tk 227,566 crore for the rest of this fiscal year.
A total of 1,525 projects have received allocations in the RADP, and 343 are expected to be completed within FY23. Of them, 1,410 are investment projects and the rest 115 are technical assistance projects.
Bangladesh has seen only 41.65 per cent implementation of the RADP in the first nine months (July-March) of FY2022-23 due to slow execution of ongoing projects, which is the lowest in five years.
The implementation rate was 45.05 per cent during the same period of FY2021-22 and 47.22 per cent in FY2016-17, according to the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Planning Ministry.
The IMED data showed that the ADP implementation rate was 41.92 per cent in the July-March period of FY2020-21 and 45.08 per cent in FY2019-20. According to the data, the implementing agencies spent Tk 98,521.03 crore in the nine months of FY23.
Transport sector to get highest allocation
In the upcoming ADP, the country’s transport sector is likely to get the highest allocation.
In the upcoming ADP, Roads and Highways Division has sought Tk 33,240 crore, followed by Railway Ministry Tk 14,966 crore, Bridge Division Tk 8,864 crore and Shipping Ministry Tk 5,823 crore.
The senior planning ministry official said like the previous year, the transport sector will get the highest allocation in the next ADP. The energy sector may get the second highest allocation in the ADP.
About the matter, state minister for planning Prof Shamsul Alam said the government has prepared the ADP outlay for the upcoming budget, giving priority to improving the road network and infrastructure for strengthening the supply chain.
