The government revised the Annual Development Programme (ADP) on Tuesday, trimming the fund allocation by 4.62 per cent to Tk 1.65 trillion.
In the revised ADP, the transport sector has got top priority as the government has allocated Tk 380.40 billion, 23.05 per cent of the total outlay, for it.
The allocation at the original ADP for the current fiscal (FY) 2018-19 was Tk 1.73 trillion.
Presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the National Economic Council (NEC) finalised the RADP at its meeting in Dhaka on the day, Planning Minister MA Mannan told journalists after emerging from the meeting.
He said the government had allocated record highest Tk 1.14 trillion from internal sources in the RADP from Tk 1.13 trillion in the original ADP.
It has, however, slashed the outlay by a significant amount of Tk 90 billion to Tk 510 billion from external sources (project aid) at the RADP of the current FY 2019.
The allocation of the project aid in the original ADP was Tk 600 billion.
Besides, the NEC in its meeting revised the allocation of funds for the projects under the public-sector autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies by boosting Tk 17.50 billion to Tk 96.19 billion from that of Tk 78.69 billion at the ADP.
With this fund allocation, the size of the total RADP this fiscal stood at Tk 1.74 trillion.
In the newly approved RADP, the power sector has grabbed the second highest Tk 232.25 billion; the infrastructure planning, water supply & housing sector got the 3rd highest Tk 203.77 billion; and the education and religion sector received Tk 154.68 billion.
The NEC has allocated Tk 1.65 trillion to 1,785 ongoing projects of the ministries and agencies in the RADP.
Besides, the state-owned autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies will implement 131 ongoing projects with the revised allocation of Tk 96.19 billion.
Meanwhile, the PM at the NEC meeting again directed the ministries not to appoint any person as the project directors for many schemes under the development programme.
She also stressed the need for strengthening the IMED (Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division) as the NEC has decided to open its office at divisional level and set up a technical lab with adequate manpower, the planning minister told reporters.
He said the PM also asked the ministries and agencies to submit the project completion report (PCR) within three months from the date of completing the certain project.
The Planning Commission (PC) about four months ago started work to revise the Tk1.73 trillion ADP amid the lower project execution performance of the government agencies.
According to the IMED, the public agencies spent only 39 per cent of the Tk 1.73 trillion ADP outlay during the July-February period this fiscal year.
