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Falling aid curtails ADP further

FY03 revised development programme now Tk 17,100 crore; foreign assistance drops by Tk 1,434 crore

INAM AHMED
The annual development programme (ADP) of this year is finally going to be slashed by Tk 2,100 crore or 11 per cent of the original mainly in the face of shrinking foreign assistance.
Once set at Tk 17,500 crore on March 16, the government had to go for further cuts and fix it at Tk 17,100 crore as the international aid environment looked even gloomier and domestic resources constrained.
The original size of the ADP was Tk 19, 200 crore.
Foreign assistance has been cut by Tk 1,434 crore or 16 per cent and local resource allocation by Tk 666 crore or six per cent.
In doing the revision, many of the low priority and unapproved projects with zero local currency provision have been cast off. Projects with no
progress and those having no foreign assistance tie-ups have also faced the axe.
The revised ADP will be placed at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) tomorrow to be chaired by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.
In the revised ADP, education no longer stands as the number one fund-getter, as the communication sector has overtaken it after a huge amount of project aid poured in.
The communication sector's revised allocation stands at Tk 3,046 crore or 18 per cent of the total ADP. It received 21 per cent project aid.
But the education sector has been revised down to Tk 2,552 crore or 15 per cent of the ADP from Tk 2950 crore.
In revising the ADP, caution was
taken while incorporating new projects. Only 21 new investment, 32 technical and two self-financed projects have been added.
Moreover, 182 projects have been stalled after providing fund, excluded from the ADP or stripped of allocation.
The planning commission has also finalised the actual implementation record of last fiscal's (FY02) ADP.
Against the revised FY02 ADP of Tk 16,000 crore, the actual expenditure had been Tk 14,090.17 crore or 88 per cent of the total allocation. This once again revealed the lack of implementation capacity of the government.
And once again, local currency expenditure, 94 per cent of allocation, was much better than project aid implementation, 88 per cent of the allocation.