The size of foreign assistance in the next fiscal’s Annual Development Programme (ADP) is likely to be Tk 215 billion.

This allocation will be Tk 65 billion more than that of the current fiscal’s revised ADP and Tk 28.15 billion bigger than this year’s original ADP outlay, officials said.

The Finance Division in a recent letter to the Planning Ministry said the ADP outlay for the upcoming 2012-13 fiscal would be Tk 543 billion.

Of the total amount, spending in local currency was estimated at Tk 328 billion while project assistance (PA) will be Tk 215 billion, officials said.

Economic Relations Division (ERD) officials said earlier this month, they were asked to apprise the Finance Division of foreign aid demands of difference ministries.

In response, the ERD submitted a compiled demand of Tk 215.6 billion, which later saw a cut by Tk 600 million. The ERD held a series of meetings between April 16 and 19 to assess the project assistance demands and received demands for a total amount of Tk 198 billion. However, they are yet to receive demands from some agencies.

After aggregating all the demands, ERD will send a proposal to the Planning Ministry to finalise the draft of ADP allocations, officials added. The original ADP outlay was Tk 460 billion in the current fiscal. Of the amount, PA constituted Tk 186.85 billion or 41 percent of the total stipulated expenditure.

Later, it was downsized to Tk 410 billion in the revised ADP, where foreign assistance was Tk 150 billion.

UNB adds: The implementation progress of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) in the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal was 45 percent, the same rate achieved during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal (2010-11).

According to the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), the expenditure during the nine months was, however, Tk 206.17 billion, up Tk 31.07 billion compared to Tk 175.10 billion during the corresponding period of fiscal 2010-11.

Of the total expenditure, the share of the project assistance was Tk 61.29 billion (33 percent) as against Tk 5104 billion (33 percent) during the same period of the previous fiscal.

The share of the local funding was Tk 144.88 billion (53 percent).

About Tk 172.98 billion, 63 percent of the allocation, was released during the July-March period of fiscal 2011-12. The size of the revised ADP allocation in the current fiscal is Tk 410 billion while the original outlay was Tk 460 billion.

The IMED figures showed that the Statistics Division achieved the highest implementation rate of 223 percent while the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism posted the lowest implementation rate of 1 percent.

The utilisation rate of top 10 ministries and divisions during the nine-month period of 2011-12 fiscal were 54 percent or Tk 167.71 billion in expenditure.

Among the top ministries and divisions, the Local Government Division made the highest expenditure of Tk 53.33 billion (58 percent) followed by the Power Division Tk 46.92 billion (66 percent).

Primary and Mass Education Ministry’s progress was 67 percent (Tk 16.22 billion), while that of Education Ministry 47 percent (Tk 10.03 billion), Health and Family Welfare Ministry 101 percent (Tk 10.13 billion), Energy and Mineral Resources Division 42 percent (Tk 4.50 billion), Water Resources Ministry 42 percent (Tk 6.25 billion), Roads Division 44 percent (9.94 billion), Railways Division 37 percent (Tk 8.40 billion), and Bridge Division 9 percent (Tk 1.97 billion).

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 30th April 2012