Published in Daily Sun on Monday, 20 April 2015.
ADP execution in 9 months improves amid unrest
Hasibul Aman
The execution of government annual development plan during the first nine months of this fiscal year saw modest progress, although three-month long political turbulence squeezed economic activities, latest official data suggests.
Implementation of Annual Development Programme (ADP) moved up by 1 percent to 44 percent with Tk 35,153 crore spending during July-March period of the ongoing 2014-15 fiscal year, according to latest figures of the IMED (Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division) of the Planning Ministry.
ADP spending stood at Tk 28,428 crore, 43 percent of the total outlay, during the same period a year earlier that also went through a political unrest.
In the previous two fiscals, ADP execution rates, however, were better at 49 percent and 45 percent supported by a calm political situation.
The government is optimistic about the latest ADP accomplishment status as it is on the rise despite street violence that severely disrupted development activities apart from private economic activities. BNP-led alliance enforced a country-wide non-stop blockade along with intermittent shut-downs since January 6 demanding fresh elections under a caretaker government.
Political situation looked comparatively calm in the wake of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zias return to her residence on April 5 from her party office where she had stayed for more than three months to wage anti-government protests.
Economic analysts, think tanks and development partners are now coming with different figures of huge economic losses caused by the political turmoil, although the government is saying that the bite of the disturbances was much softer.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has estimated a 0.5 percent loss of GDP in the current fiscal year caused by political violence mainly, marked by arson attacks on public transports, while the World Bank estimate was much higher at 1 percent of GDP or US$2.2 billion losses, projecting a 5.6 percent growth for the year.
But Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal thinks that the hartal losses wont cross 0.1 percent of GDP in the current fiscal year as most of the economic activities were running during the blockade.
Shrugging off the fears, both the planning minister and the finance minister hoped that this fiscals GDP growth will be close to 7 percent.
The size of original ADP outlay was Tk 80,315 crore, which was later slashed to Tk 75,000 crore, up from last fiscals Tk 60,000 crore revised ADP.
First nine months ADP spending from local currency was similar to that of last year, while utilisation of project assistance improved by 1 percent.
Implementing agencies managed to spend Tk 23,897 crore or 45 percent from local currency, and Tk 11,256 crore or 41 percent from PA during July-March period.
The top ten ministries or divisions that saw 71 percent of total resource allocations under ADP showed better performance, spending Tk 27,209 crore or 45 percent of their allocations in nine months.
The highest allocated local government division topped the list with 60 percent execution performance, followed by primary & mass education ministry’s 47 percent and 46 percent performance shown by each of the power division and the education ministry.
The planning minister is going to hold a meeting a the Planning Commission today (Monday) that will discuss latest status of ADP execution with top allocated and low performing government agencies, the Commission sources said.