ADP to be cut by 15 percent

Trackback URL

Download PDF

The government is going to slash its annual development expenditure by 15 percent, while allocating an additional Tk 15 crore for programmes to develop the livelihoods of the people of 10 districts, identified as lagging behind in reducing the rate of poverty.

With a reduction of Tk 4,000 crore in the annual development programme (ADP) fund, the revised allocation for it will stand at Tk 22,500 crore.

The revised ADP and the new allocation for the 10 lagging behind districts’ development are scheduled to be placed at a general meeting of the National Economic Council for approval today.

Sources in the planning ministry said based on a survey on household expenditures carried out by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the government selected the districts of Rangpur, Dinajpur, Gaibandha, Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Khulna, Bagerhat, Patuakhali, Pirojpur, and Bandarban for its district development programme.

Through implementing the programme, the government intends to minimize developmental discrimination based on geographical locations, said ministry sources adding that allocations for the programme is likely to increase more in the next budget.

Under the Tk 15 crore development programme for the 10 districts, the government plans to generate employment opportunities for the poor, especially the ultra poor, the sources said.

The rate of ADP project implementation in the current fiscal has been the most dismal ever, with only 25 percent of the projects been implemented in the first seven months of the fiscal 2007–’08.

The low implementation rate forced the government to cut the ADP budget down to Tk 22,500 crore from its original allocation of Tk 26,500 crore.

The government will cut Tk 3,150 core form the local currency component of ADP bringing down the allocation for that part to Tk 13,550 crore from its earlier allocation of Tk 16,700 crore.

The foreign aid funded project expenditure will also come down by 5.59 percent bringing down the allocation to Tk 8,950 crore from the earlier Tk 9,800 crore.

Allocations coming from local resources are to be slashed by 41 percent or Tk 5,552 crore, bringing the revised allocation down to Tk 7,973 crore from the earlier Tk 13,525 crore.

But allocations coming from foreign resources will increase by 15 percent or Tk 1,552 crore, pushing those up to Tk 14,527 crore from the original amount of Tk 12,975 crore. This increase is made possible by donors’ increased budgetary support of Tk 5,425 crore to the government, which was only Tk 2,100 crore in the original ADP prior to cyclone Sidr and last year’s successive floods.

Despite having plans to reduce the annual development expenditure, the government will also increase the lump sum allocation for development of local governments and Chittagong Hill Tracts, in the revised ADP, by allocating an additional sum of Tk 150 crore for the purpose.

The cut in ADP allocation will come from slashing development funds for rural development, power, communications, and water development sectors, as those sectors will not be able to implement all of the projects of the fiscal that were planned earlier.

Leave a Reply