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ADP trimmed by Tk 3,000cr

Economy won't be run on 'fancied' donor prescription, says Saifur

UNB, Dhaka
Finance and Planning Minister Saifur Rahman yesterday asserted that the economy would be run on the basis of its necessity not on the "fancied" guidelines of donor agencies like ESCAP, World Bank and IMF.
"They (donors) publish reports with their imaginary views," he told a press conference after a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) that approved an ADP (Annual Development Programme ) cut of Tk 3,000 crore for the current fiscal year.
Chaired by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, the meeting approved the revised development budget for the fiscal 2001-2002, bringing down the development expenditure to Tk 16,000 crore from the original outlay of Tk 19,000 crore.
Saifur said the steps on the basis of necessity yielded results and the foreign exchange reserve rose to
the US$ 1.48 billion mark on Tuesday.
He cited this example when his attention was drawn to a recent ESCAP report that said any increase in the inflow of foreign direct investment in Bangladesh would depend on an agreement to permit gas export.
Saifur said the Article IV mission of IMF had tried to influence the new government to cut the ADP size as low as Tk 12,000 crore and suggested introduction of floating exchange rate for the foreign currencies.
"We did not follow their prescription ... What we did is meet the requirement of the economy," he said, explaining the government efforts to overcome the poor state of the foreign exchange reserve that dipped as low as one billion dollars.
He said the government had decided to cut the ADP size to match the expenditure with the availability
of resources. The original ADP of Tk 19,000 crore became unrealistic due to expansionary monetary policy of the past Awami League government, he added.
The minister said the failure of the AL government in controlling expenditure caused fiscal deficit of 6.5 per cent, which actually should be around seven per cent if overdrafts of Tk 2,000 crore is considered.
He said the government tried to limit the expenditures to priority areas like poverty alleviation and human resources development.
The finance minister said the past success in the health sector is now going to be destroyed as the Awami League government adopted the Health and Population Sector Programme (HPSP) violating all norms.
In the original ADP for the current fiscal, Tk 9,800 crore was earmarked for the HPSP against an expenditure of Tk 2,088 crore for the programme in the previous fiscal. Only Tk 1,090 crore has so far been spent during this fiscal.
Under the World Bank-funded programme, the construction of 14 hospitals has already been completed but equipment could not be procured due to some problems in the agreements with the World Bank, he said. Ministry of Health cannot procure equipment as per the agreement.
The minister said he wants to see that the base of future development is the poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP), which will be finalised after considering views of all concerned.
He said he would like to implement the PRSP as a three-year rolling programme instead of a five-year one to make it relevant with the free market economy.