Development spending rose to a four-month high of Tk 10,151 crore in October as the government accelerated expenditure to revive the economy reeling under the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
The outlay under the annual development programme, is, however, down 23.72 per cent from the Tk 13,308 crore spent in the same month last year, data from the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division showed yesterday.
From July to October, the first four months of the fiscal year, the ADP spending stood at Tk 27,453 crore, down 10.43 per cent year-on-year.
The uptick in the ADP implementation may be attributed to the softening of the government stance on the fund going to low-priority projects.
In July, the government had restricted the disbursement of funds for the low-priority projects to free up funds for the productive sectors amid widening revenue shortfall caused by the devastating impacts of the pandemic.
Recently, the finance ministry has softened its stance, giving in to pressures from line ministries and also for improvements in revenue collection.
Now, 25 per cent of the allocation from the ADP would remain halted for the ministries because of the lingering pandemic, down from 30 per cent previously.
Ministries and divisions could utilise Tk 7,050 crore of the government fund in October. It was Tk 9,648 crore in the same period last fiscal year.
On the other hand, they were able to spend Tk 2,827 crore from the foreign aid portion this year. It was Tk 3,410 crore in the same period last fiscal year.
The overall ADP implementation during the July to October period fell to 12.79 per cent, the lowest in the past five fiscal years.
Of the 15 large ministries and divisions, which received 81.16 per cent of the allocation this fiscal year, 11 spent higher than the average.
The primary and mass education ministry was able to spend 25.15 per cent of the implementation target, followed by the secondary and higher secondary division with 20.70 per cent of its allocation.
The Prime Minister's Office spent 19.81 per cent of its allocation and power division 16.69 per cent, education ministry 15.30 per cent, local government division 12.67 per cent, road transport and highway division spent 12.19 per cent, water resources ministry 11.97 per cent, bridge division 11.68 per cent, science and technology ministry 10.28 per cent, and ministry of housing and public works 10.11 per cent.
Planning ministry officials blamed the fallouts of the coronavirus for the low implementation of the ADP.
They said the implementation rate is not always the same and varies from month to month. It will speed up in the coming months.
The implementation rate of foreign aid was better than that of government fund as the multilateral partners like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank and bilateral partners such as China and India sit in regular review meetings to expedite the project execution.
