Development spending in decade low
Bangladesh's expansion expenditure was recorded at its lowest in ten years during the July-February amount of the existing fiscal year as government agencies were able to spend just 33.83 % of the allocation, in line with the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED).
The annual advancement programme (ADP) dropped 9.4 % to Tk 72,603.35 crore in the first eight months of fiscal 2020-21, down from Tk 80,143.06 crore in the last fiscal.
This means the country's economy is still struggling to surge out fully of the pandemic-induced downturn.
The expenditure from the express coffer took a huge blow as it dropped 12.19 % to Tk 46,139 crore in the first eight months of the fiscal year.
Spending from foreign cash also declined marginally during the same period.
The federal government allocated Tk 214,611 crore to invest on production projects for fiscal 2020-21. On the other hand, the rate of spending on development tasks in February suppressed that of pre-pandemic levels.
The projects spent 5.38 per cent of the full total allocation for ADP in the spending plan in February, up from 5.19 % in the same month in this past year, due to a rise in people's mobility that propelled monetary activities.
"Various ministries typically lag behind in implementing the ADP, but since March last year, the implementation features been further reduced because of Covid-19," an official of the planning ministry told The Daily Star.
"However now the implementation is slowly increasing," he added.
Despite the pandemic, which pushed for further spending on the health sector all over the world, medical Service Division were able to spend only 21.38 % or Tk 20,830 crore of its total allocation from the ADP in the first eight months.
The Bridges Division can be lagging behind in ADP implementation as its expenditure stands at Tk 25.16 per cent in the eight months.
And for that, twelve-monthly allocation for Padma bridge reduced to Tk 2,099.93 crore. The original allocation was Tk 5,000 crore.
The science and ICT ministry spent only 30.38 per cent in the same period. The allocation for the 2 2,400 MW Rooppur Nuclear Vitality Plant, the largest single project which will probably be worth Tk 113,092 crore, witnessed significant reduction.
The project would now get Tk 10,166.78 crore this fiscal, which is Tk 5,524.35 crore less than the original allocation.
The energy plant project made 34.34 % progress until December this past year.
Not surprisingly sluggish spending in the government-funded task, the entire allocation to the revised annual development program was trimmed by only Tk 7 lakh despite the fact that the government had decided to put low-priority tasks on carry in the very beginning of the fiscal year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
In the original ADP, the government fund was Tk 134,643.07 crore for fiscal 2020-21.
"We are actually emphasising on federal government spending to boost the economy and rise funding in rural areas. That message provides been conveyed to the ministries," said the official of financing ministry seeking anonymity.
"That is why a circular provides been issued instructing them they can spend up to 85 per cent of the low priority jobs' allocation without the approval of the finance division," he added.
However, in the beginning of the financial year, priority projects were asked to halt their spending. Later, they were allowed to send 75 per cent of the allocations.
