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The government, facing local resources crunch and fallout from global economic recession, is likely to cut the size of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for fiscal 2005-06 by 10.2 per cent.
The volume of the current ADP might be lowered to Tk 220 billion from Tk 245 billion.
"The cut in ADP size will be a record. It was less than 7.0 per cent in the past couple of years," said a high Planning Commission official.
The government slashed ADP size to Tk 190 from Tk 203 billion in 2003-04. In the last fiscal, the original ADP worth Tk 220 billion was trimmed to Tk 205 billion.
The Planning Commission recently released a guideline setting criteria for the revision of ADP.
It has restricted the raising of the number of projects that are less important from economic point of view. The Planning Commission recommended inclusion of only priority projects, which will be implemented with local resources.
For revision of projects, the ministries have been advised to select projects after evaluation of the availability of local resources under the present adverse global economic conditions.
The Planning Commission has made it mandatory to include in the revised ADP those non-ADP projects for which funds have already been allocated.
The other priority projects as suggested by the commission are donor-funded flood protection schemes, employment generation-friendly agricultural projects and infrastructure development projects in communications, power and energy sector.
The Planning Commission had asked the ministries to submit their revised projects by February 12. But most of the ministries have failed to comply with the recommendations, sources said.
Some 856 projects have been included in the current ADP. Of which, 712 are investment projects and 144 are technical assistance projects. The contribution of local and foreign resources has been fixed at Tk 126.50 billion and Tk 118.50 billion respectively.
In the last ADP review meeting held in January, officials claimed that over 30 per cent of the ADP was implemented in the first six months of the fiscal year.
Some 15 ministries and divisions, which are responsible for carrying out more than 75 per cent of the ADP, implemented 33 per cent on an average.
The implementation rate by those ministries was, however, only 23 per cent in first five months. The rate was the slowest for July-November period in the past several fiscals.
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