Bangladesh raises Annual Development Plan to Tk 2.65 trillion for FY25

The planned spending is 8.16 percent more than the revised outlay for the current fiscal year

The government has approved an Annual Development Plan, or ADP, worth Tk 2.65 trillion for the 2024-25 fiscal year, an 8.16 percent rise from the revised outlay for the current fiscal year and 0.76 percent from the original.

The endorsement of the new ADP came in a meeting of the National Economic Council chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka on Thursday.

At a media briefing after the meeting, Planning Minister Abdus Salam said, “Acceptable and implementable projects have been taken this time. The projects will be evaluated every three months from now on following the prime minister's instructions to increase the capacity of implementation.”

“According to the instructions of the prime minister, officials with training and experiences from abroad will be engaged in relevant projects. The secretaries will be instructed to appoint them to relevant projects from now on.”

The new ADP has been taken for a total of 1,321 projects. As much as Tk 1.65 trillion or 62.26 percent of the outlay will come from domestic resources while the rest, 37.74 percent, will be funded through loans from foreign sources.

The amount of foreign loans in the revised ADP for the current fiscal year was Tk 835 billion. That means the amount of foreign loans in the upcoming fiscal year will rise by Tk 165 billion.

When asked about foreign loans amid the ongoing dollar crisis, Planning Commission Member (Senior Secretary) Satyajit Karmaker said, “After 2026, we will no longer get low-interest foreign loans when Bangladesh graduates from the least developed countries. Until then, we’ll use foreign loans as much as possible.”

The local autonomous organisations and corporations will spend around Tk 132.88 billion, taking the total ADP to 2.78 trillion.

In the next budget, like the last one, the maximum allocation of Tk 706.87 billion will go to the transport and communication sector, which is 26.67 percent of the total ADP. The allocation for the sector in the current fiscal year is Tk 632.63 billion, or 25.82 percent of the total.

The power and energy sector has been allocated Tk 407.51 billion, or 15.38 percent of the total, up from Tk 378.96 billion or 15.47 percent in the current fiscal year.

The NEC also approved Tk 315.28 billion for education, Tk 248.68 billion for housing, Tk 206.82 billion for health, Tk 179.86 billion for local government and rural development, Tk 132.19 billion for agriculture, Tk 118.9 billion for climate and environment, Tk 64.92 percent for industry and economic services and 47.86 billion for science and technology in the new plan.