The National Economic Council (NEC) on Tuesday approved a Tk. 73,984-crore Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the 2013-14 fiscal, allocating Tk. 6,852 crore for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) project. The proposed ADP, which is higher than the ADP of the current fiscal by 34.48 per cent, though in the first 10 months of the current fiscal, ADP implementation rate is only 59 per cent. In the proposed ADP the highest allocation goes to the transportation sector, amounting to Tk. 14,737.40 crore, which is 22.37 per cent of the total outlay.
Of the total outlay of the ADP, Tk. 4,1307 crore will be arranged from the government fund, Tk. 24,563 crore from project assistance and Tk. 8,114 crore from the autonomous bodies and corporations fund.
Prime Minister and NEC chairperson Sheikh Hasina presided over the meeting, held at the NEC conference room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.
Briefing reporters, planning minister AK Khandker said the NEC includes the self-financed projects of the autonomous bodies and corporations.
The government has given priority to the transport sector. Taking the need for development of the communications system into consideration, Tk. 15,373.57 crore (23.34%) will be allocated to the sector. The power sector will receive second topmost priority, with Tk. 9,053.48 crore (13.74%); the education and religious sector will be the third priority sector, getting Tk. 8,766.34 crore (13.31%), while Tk. 6,622.33 crore (10.05%) will be allocated to the rural development and rural institutions sector, Tk. 5,454.49 crore (8.28%) for the physical infrastructure, water supply and housing sector, Tk. 4,239.54 crore (6.44%) for the health sector and Tk. 3,721.18 crore (5.65%) for the agricultural sector.
The NEC approved the budget proposal under different development sectors: Tk. 1,310 crore for five projects of the local government division, Tk. 160 crore for three projects of Chittagong Hill Tracts ministry, Tk. 16 crore for development assistance in special zones (except Chittagong Hill Tracts) of the Prime Minister’s Office as well as Tk. 1,525.30 crore for development assistance for special needs.
Of the total outlay of the special allocation for different development sectors, Tk. 1,812 crore will be obtained from the government funds and the rest Tk. 1,199.30 crore from project assistance.
The NEC has incorporated a total of 1,176 projects, of which 50 projects are approved ones and the remaining 996 projects are replacement ones from the fiscal year 2012-13. The NEC included 44 projects under public private partnership (PPP) among the ADP project list. The ADP includes 130 projects belonging to various civic bodies.
Khandker also expressed the hope that the government’s development goal would be achieved through proper implementation of the approved ADP.
About the Padma bridge project, he said the government has not yet given up on the possibility of foreign assistance for the much-hyped project. “We will use the USD 200 million grant provided by India for the Padma bridge project,” he added.
Planning secretary Bhuiyan Shafiqul Islam said that though the civic bodies have been included under the ADP, their progress reports, however, will not be included with the ADP implementation report prepared by the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED).
Replying to a question, he said the own projects of the civic bodies are part of the development budget. These projects were not included earlier but have been included for the first time, he added.
ECNEC members, including finance minister AMA Muhith, planning minister Air Vice Marshal (retd) AK Khandker and agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury, the ministers, secretaries and officials concerned, advisers to the Prime Minister and members of the Planning Commission were present at the meeting.
-With The Independent input
