The planning ministry has identified as least 96 on-going priority development projects involving Tk 1,644 crore under the current annual development programme because of slow implementation, officials said. Of the total 1,245 projects, the planning ministry also identified 281 projects as mid-priority which involved Tk 11,486 crore and another 868 projects as priority projects amounting around Tk 48,000 crore, they said.
Officials said that the least priority projects might ultimately face fund cuts when the ADP would be revised next month.
The planning ministry is in a tussle with the finance ministry after the finance ministry recommended for downsizing the ADP to Tk 55,000 crore, down by Tk 10,872 crore or 16.50 per cent from its original outlay.
As of January, the government has spent only 33 per cent of Tk 658.72 billion development budget in the current fiscal year, which was 38 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.
Planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told New Age on Tuesday that 96 projects were red-marked. ‘None of these 96 projects will be cut from the ADP as the government has already invested in those projects partly,’ he claimed.
He said the red-marked projects will not be able to finish their works in this fiscal year and so those are currently not the focus of the ministry.
‘We are negotiating the issue and I don’t see any reason for downsizing the ADP. The government has different types of revenue earnings other than what the National Board of Revenue collects,’ Mustafa Kamal said when asked about the fund constraint of the revised ADP.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina last week at the meeting of executive committee of national economic council hinted that the government might go for bank borrowing to finance the ADP, said officials present in the meeting.
The bank borrowing assurance came following a row between the planning and finance ministries over the size of the revised ADP, they said.
They said that ultimately the ADP size might be cut by around Tk 3,000 crore and revised ADP size might be at around Tk 62,000 crore.
-With New Age input
