DHAKA, March 2, 2021 (BSS) – The National Economic Council (NEC) today approved a Taka 1,97,643 crore Revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) for the current fiscal year (FY21) keeping highest priority to the transport sector.
The approval came from a meeting of the NEC held at its conference room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
The Prime Minister chaired the meeting through video conferencing from her official Ganobhaban residence.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Division secretary Mohammad Jainul Bari said that that Taka 7,501.72 crore were cut from the original ADP size of Taka 2,05,145 crore for the current fiscal year.
“Out of the total RADP outlay, Taka 1,34,643 crore will come from the local sources while Taka 63,000 crore from the foreign sources,” said the Planning Secretary.
He said the NEC also approved Taka 11,628.90 crore against 101 projects of the autonomous bodies and corporations. Incorporating the funding of the autonomous bodies and corporations, the size of the overall RADP for the current fiscal year totaled Taka 2,09,271.90 crore.
The number of projects in the RADP totaled 1785 including 1640 investment projects, 145 technical assistant projects. Besides, incorporating 101 projects of the autonomous bodies and corporations, the total number of projects reached 1886.
Jainul said while framing this RADP, Taka 7,501.72 crore were trimmed from the foreign sources portion of the ADP.
He said at the very outset of the meeting, the NEC congratulated the Prime Minister as the UN CDP has given its final recommendations over the graduation of Bangladesh from the LDC status.
The Planning Division Secretary said the RADP for the current fiscal year has been approved a bit earlier for which the executing ministries and divisions would get much more time to utilize their allocations.
He said some 442 projects have been kept for completion in the RADP for the current fiscal year while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the authorities concerned to complete those projects within this fiscal year.
Jainul said the in the future, the projects which would be decided by the NEC for completion within a certain fiscal year would have to be completed within that fiscal year and there would be no such time extension unless there is a valid reason.
Answering to a question, he said some 33 ministries and divisions had demanded of the planning commission for reducing their allocations while some 23 ministries and divisions had demanded for raising their allocations in the RADP.
About the directives from the premier, Janinul said Sheikh Hasina directed the authorities concerned to speedily complete the projects within the stipulated timeframe.
Besides, the prime minister renewed her directives that the project directors should have to remain in their project sites while one project director should not remain in charge of more than one projects.
Jainul said the premier also stressed the need for conducting necessary works in the dry season for preventing river erosion, giving all out efforts to maintain the momentum of the economy despite the shock of COVID-19, continuing with the ongoing vaccination Programme, boosting food and agricultural production so that the essential iteams remain within the reach of commoners.
Revealing the implementation status of the ADP during the July-January period of the current fiscal year, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) Secretary Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty said the executing agencies could spend Taka 61,049 crore during this period with an implementation rate of 28.45 percent.
The executing agencies spent Taka 68,980 crore during the same period of the last fiscal year (FY20) with an utilization rate of 32.07 percent.
Pradip also informed that the RADP implementation rate in the last fiscal year (FY20) reached 80.39 percent with an expenditure of Taka 1,61,740.61 crore.
Answering a question, he said that the project execution often delays due to the matters related to land acquisition while the IMED always recommend for “no cost” time extension of projects.
The NEC meeting also decided to reorganize the concerned sectors of development projects to 15 from the existing 17.
In the RADP, the transport sector got the highest allocation with 24.90 percent or Taka 49,213 crore followed by the 2nd highest physical planning, water supply and housing sector with Taka 26,492 crore (13.40 of RADP allocation), the power sector with Taka 21,945 crore (11.10 % of RADP allocation) while the education and religion sector got an allocation of Taka 24,572 crore (12.43% of RADP allocation).
Besides, the Science and ICT Sector got an allocation of Taka 11,576 crore (5.86 of RADP allocation) followed by Taka 18,290 crore (9.25% of RADP allocation) to the rural development and rural institutions sector, Taka 14,922 crore (7.55 % of RADP allocation) to the health, population and family welfare sector, Taka 7,734 crore (3.91 of RADP allocation) to the agriculture sector, Taka 6,709 crore (3.39% of RADP allocation) to the water resources sector, Taka 3,500 crore (1.77% of RADP allocation) to the industries sector.
Among the Ministries and Divisions, the Local Government Division got the highest allocation of Taka 34,170 crore followed by the Road Transport and Highways Division with Taka 25,761 crore, Power Division with Taka 21,935 crore, Ministry of Science and Technology with Taka 10,904 crore, Ministry of Railways with Taka 11,988 crore, Health Services Division with Taka 11,979 crore, Secondary and Higher Education Division with Taka 9,685 crore, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education with Taka 10,686 crore, and the Ministry of Water Resources with Taka 7,365 crore.
Ministers and state ministers attended the meeting while Planning Commission members and secretaries concerned were present.