The development partners released US$4.82 billion worth of assistance during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year (FY2020-21), according to official figures.
The disbursement was exactly the same during the corresponding period of FY2019-20, according to provisional data released by Economic Relations Division (ERD) on Tuesday.
Officials, however, termed the utilisation even better than that of the same period of last FY as the development work under foreign aid witnessed better progress despite an adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Of the amount disbursed during the July-April period of this FY, $4.57 billion was in medium- to long-term (MLT) loans and $242.5 million in grants.
In the same period of last FY, the multilateral and bilateral development partners like the World Bank (WB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan, and China released $4.59 billion in MLT loans and $222.71 million in grants.
A senior ERD official said the disbursements were in a better position as some of the budgetary supports and programme loans had been released while the project implementation agencies utilised the foreign components of different ongoing projects properly.
Another senior ERD official told the FE that both foreign aid commitment and disbursement could be increased further if the pandemic impact did not persist.
According to ERD data, the country bagged an aid commitment of $5.27 billion in loans and grants during the period under review, which the officials termed impressive growth.
It was $1.52 billion or 40.42 per cent higher than that of the same period of the previous FY's commitment of $3.75 billion.
Of the total commitment for FY2021, $4.68 billion fund confirmation came as loans and $593.10 million as grants.
During the July-April period of last FY, the development partners had confirmed $3.42 billion worth of MLT loans and $337.28 million grants.
The aid commitment means confirmation of loans or grants by the donors against any project or programme through signing deals with the government.
And, the disbursement means the release of the committed loans and grants following the agreements.
When asked, a senior ERD official told the FE that the overall commitment was on a comfortable zone thanks to some big special-purpose aid pledges.
These included the ADB's $500 million for Covid preparedness, the WB's $1.0 billion for vaccine procurement and job creation, and Japan's $320 million budgetary supports.
As an aid in the pipeline was available, an official said, the disbursements would have been increased further if the project execution agencies could expedite works under the current Annual Development Programme (ADP).
According to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), the government ministries and agencies spent only 53 per cent of the foreign aid allocation under the ADP during the July-April period of FY2021.
The officials, however, expected to achieve the disbursement and commitment targets by the end of the current FY. The government had set a foreign aid target of $8.32 billion for this FY.
The development partners used to release their committed funds against different public sector projects and programmes in Bangladesh every year.
Meanwhile, the government made a loan repayment of $1.60 billion during the July-April period of the current FY2021 against the total outstanding MLT loans, the ERD data showed.
The amount of debt servicing in the corresponding period of last FY2020 was $1.48 billion.
Out of the $1.60 billion repayments in the current FY, the government repaid interest worth $427.37 million and principal worth $1.17 billion.
