The government has earmarked an allocation of Taka 1,73,000 crore for original Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the next fiscal (2018-19) with more emphasis on speeding up the implementation of mega projects.
The ADP for the next fiscal, also the highest development budget in the country’s history, gave emphasis on speeding up the construction works of some mega infrastructure projects, including the Padma Bridge, Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Karnaphuli Tunnel, Matarbari Power Plant, Padma Bridge Rail Link and Dhaka Metro-Rail.
If the state owned autonomous organisations’ own fund of Taka 7,869.17 crore is considered, the overall ADP size stood at Taka 1,80,869.17 crore for the next fiscal (2018-19).
Out of the original ADP size of Taka 1,73,000 crore, Taka 1,13,000 crore will come from the local sources while the rest of Taka 60,000 crore from the foreign sources.
Out of the overall ADP size, Taka 1,19,810.95 crore will come from the local sources while Taka 61,058.22 crore from foreign sources.
The original ADP outlay for the next financial year is 16.59 percent or Tk 24,619 crore higher than that of the revised allocation for the current fiscal 2017-18.
While placing the national budget for fiscal 2018-19 at Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday, Muhith proposed making 26.9 percent or Taka 46,452 crore ADP allocation for human resources development (education, health and others) while 21.8 percent or Taka 37,652 crore ADP allocation for overall agriculture (agriculture, rural development and rural institutions, water resources and others), 14.3 percent or Taka 24,713 crore for power and energy, 26.3 percent or Taka 45,450 crore for communication (roads, railways, bridges and others) and 10.8 percent or Taka 18,733 crore for other sectors.
Mentioning that the government spending in the first nine months was 45.0 percent of the revised target of the current fiscal, Muhith said the ADP implementation has gathered increased momentum this year.
“In the first 10 months, 52.4 percent of ADP allocation has been spent. The utilisation of project aid, for the first time, has increased significantly. In the first 10 months of fiscal 2017-18, the utilisation rate is 61.1 percent compared to 47.7 percent in same period of the previous fiscal year,” he added.
He said currently the implementation of mega projects is underway in full swing. “Therefore, it is assumed that there will be dynamism in the implementation of government expenditures, especially the ADP.”
The Finance Minister said the overall budget deficit will stay within 5 percent of GDP while allocating resources for ADP, the government focused on regional parity, human resources development, infrastructure development as well as on assuring quality of expenditure.
With the aim of achieving higher growth, he said the ADP size is increasing. “Moreover, various important large and mega projects are currently being implemented under ADP.”
Muhith said the budget implementation capacity of the Ministries/Divisions has already increased following various financial reforms taken by the government.
“We have taken initiatives for effecting thorough reforms in the fund release procedures for development projects to ensure faster implementation of the development programmes,” he said.
The Finance Minister said as part of this, decision has been taken that there will be no requirement for fund release of GoB portion for the first and second installments in the case of projects being implemented by the government departments.
“From now on, after the approval of the budget, project managers will be able to use the project fund from 1st of July,” he added.
Source: BSS