Govt plans 15% bigger ADP for fiscal 2019-20, communication sector to get highest allocation

The government may increase the size of its annual development programme or ADP for the upcoming fiscal year by more than 15 percent to over Tk 2 trillion compared with the original allocation this year.

The communication sector, led by Bangladesh's biggest infrastructure project Padma bridge, will get the highest allocation of the total outlay, in the proposed development budget for the fiscal 2019-20.

The total allocation for the sector will be raised more than 16 percent to Tk 530 billion, accounting for around 26 percent of the total proposed ADP outlay.

The National Economic Council, led by the prime minister, is scheduled to sit within a week in Dhaka where the Planning Commission will place the draft ADP for approval.

The commission has set the preliminary outlay for the next fiscal year's budget which will be placed at the NEC meeting within a week as per the prime minister’s schedule, Planning Minister MA Mannan told reporters after an extended meeting on Wednesday.

“We’ve finalised the ADP size of over Tk 2 trillion for the fiscal 2019-20,” he said.

Of the drafted ADP size, around Tk 309.21 billion or 64.58 percent will come from the internal resources and Tk 718 billion or 35.42 percent from external resources, according to Md Nurul Amin, the secretary to the Planning Commission.

After the communication sector, the second highest allocation will be made to the power sector. This sector is likely to get Tk 260.17 billion, making up 12.83 percent of the total outlay in the proposed development budget, he said.

The infrastructure planning, water supply and housing sector may receive the third highest funding of Tk 243.23 billion or 12 percent, and the education and religion sectors will receive the fourth largest allocation of Tk 213.79 billion or 10.55 percent of the proposed ADP for the next fiscal.