Bangladesh plans to expand development spending by 17% for next fiscal year

The government has allocated Tk 1.73 trillion for the Annual Development Programme in the next budget, which is 17 percent bigger than the revised ADP of the current fiscal year.

The budget has been finalised in a meeting presided over by Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday.

The proposed ADP will be placed in a National Economic Council meeting headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on May 10 for approval, Prashanta Kumar Chakrabarty, joint chief of Programme Division of the Planning Commission, told bdnews24.com.

 

The original ADP of fiscal 2017-18 was Tk 1.53 trillion which has been downsized to Tk 1.48 trillion on Mar 6 due to the slow implementation of the programme.

 

Ziaul Islam, secretary of the Planning Commission, confirmed that the commission finalised the development outlay of Tk 1.73 trillion for fiscal 2018-2019. The new ADP is proposed to have 1,346 projects.

 

The proposed ADP includes an allocation of Tk 78.69 billion for 105 projects to be implemented by autonomous organisations.

 

The ADP will include Tk 600 billion in foreign funds.

 

The transport sector accounts for the biggest chunk of allocations—Tk 454.5 billion, according to the proposal. The power sector gets the second highest allocation—Tk 229.3 billion, while Tk 178.9 billion has been proposed for infrastructure, water supply and housing.