Govt likely to approve Tk 2,05,145cr ADP for FY21

GBNEWS24 DESK//

The government is likely to approve a Tk 2,05,145 crore Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the next fiscal year (FY21) today giving the highest priority to the transport sector.

The National Economic Council (NEC) will sit tomorrow in a meeting at the NEC Conference Room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will chair the meeting through video conferencing from her official Ganobhaban residence from 11:00 am.

“Out of the total ADP outlay, Tk 1,34,643 crore will come from the local sources while Tk 70,501.72 crore from the foreign sources,” said a senior Planning Commission official.

The official told BSS that the new ADP for the next fiscal year is Tk 12,224 crore higher than the revised ADP of the current fiscal year (FY20).

Talking to BSS, Planning Division Secretary Muhammad Nurul Amin said this new ADP would prioritize most the sectors like transport, health, agriculture and social safety nets.

He said that the draft allocations against various ministries and divisions have been finalized after holding detailed discussions with those. “Hopefully, there will be no deficit in their allocations,”

Answering to a question, he said that the mega projects like Padma Multipurpose Bridge and Metro Rail will have enough allocations in the new ADP so that there is no crisis of fund towards smooth implementation of these projects.

Asked about their plan in the new ADP for facing the impacts of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Amin said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already approved two separate projects under the current ADP- one with Tk1127 crore and another with Tk 1364 crore – to prevent and control this deadly virus.

“If this situation continues, such projects can also come in the next ADP if the Prime Minister wishes,” added the planning secretary.

Earlier on May 12, the Planning Commission finalized the Tk 2,05,145 crore draft ADP for the next fiscal year (FY21).

The draft ADP was finalized at an extended meeting of the Planning Commission with Planning Minister MA Mannan in the chair.

The Planning Commission official said among the allocations for the mega projects, the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project got the highest proposed allocation with Tk 15,691 crore while the Paira Deep Sea Port Project the lowest Tk 350 crore.

Besides, the single line dual gauge track construction from Dohazari to Cox’s Bazar via Ramu then Ghumdum near Myanmar is likely to see an allocation of Tk 1,500 crore followed by Tk 5,000 crore to the Padma Multipurpose
Bridge Project, Tk 4,370 crore to the Metro Rail (MRT Line 6) Project, Tk 3,685 crore to the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project, Tk 3,670 crore to Matarbari Ultra Super Critical coal-fired Power Plant Project.

Another official at the Planning Commission said that the new ADP for FY21 is likely to see a record Tk 5,898.17 crore block allocation to spend that amount in case of any natural disaster or in any national need. The block allocation is also 2.87 percent of the overall ADP allocation.

In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, the new ADP will see higher priority on health, agriculture, social safety nets and in generating more employments. Besides, such a huge amount of block allocation has been kept to face any kind of situation like the COVID-19.

Apart from this, a total of 61 projects have been included in the list of Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative in the new ADP.

The draft ADP was earlier finalized based on the demands from various ministries and divisions and this draft ADP would be given final approval tomorrow at the NEC meeting.

In the new draft ADP, the transport sector got the highest allocation with 25.25 percent or Tk 52,183 crore followed by the 2nd highest physical infrastructure sector with Tk 25,795 crore, the 3rd highest power sector with Tk 24,804 crore while the education sector got the 4th highest allocation with Tk 23,390 crore.

Besides, in the draft new ADP, the Science and Technology Sector got an allocation of Tk 18,458 crore followed by Tk 15,555 crore to the rural development sector, Tk 13,033 crore to the Health sector, Tk 8,352 crore to the agriculture sector, Tk 5,527 crore to the Water Resources Sector, Tk 4049 crore to the Public Administration sector.

The Planning Commission official said due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of development projects in the new ADP will be slightly less with 1,588 projects excluding those from the autonomous bodies.

In the Revised ADP for the current fiscal year, the number of projects was 1,744