As Finance Minister A H Mahmood Ali presented the budget for FY2024-25, Tk2,81,453 crore only 5% of the proposed gross domestic product (GDP) has been allocated for development projects in the next fiscal year.
The development spending in the current fiscal was 5.5% of the GDP and it downed to 5.2% in the revised budget.
The proposed development budget is lowest in the last decade, according to the data of the finance ministry.
The Annual Development Programme (ADP) the lion’s share of the development budget, also reduced in terms of the GDP, aligning with the development expenditure.
Minister A H Mahmood Ali proposed an ADP worth Tk2,65,000 crore, only Tk2,000 crore higher than the original ADP of the current fiscal.
The National Economic Council (NEC) approved the ADP earlier, which is 4.7% of the GDP, significantly lower than the ADP worth 5.3% of the GDP in the current fiscal.
Of the total approved ADP, Tk1,65,000 crore would be managed from the government’s own funds and Tk1,00,000 crore from external sectors in the form of loans and grants.
The size of the ADP for the next fiscal increased by Tk2,000 crore a mere 0.76% increase compared to the current ADP for the current fiscal year.
