The government is set to approve a sharply downsized Revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) for the current fiscal year, with the National Economic Council (NEC) scheduled to give final approval at its meeting on Monday.
Officials at the Planning Commission said the revised ADP is expected to be reduced by around Tk 30,000 crore due to weak project implementation and mounting fiscal pressure, continuing the long-running trend of mid-year downward revisions to development spending.
According to Planning Ministry sources, the original ADP for the current fiscal year was set at Tk 2.30 lakh crore.
The revised outlay is now likely to be trimmed to around Tk 2.00 lakh crore.
Officials said ADP implementation during the first half of the year remained well below historical averages, forcing policymakers to accept that the original spending target had become unrealistic.
“There is no justification for keeping allocations that cannot be spent,” a senior planning official said on condition of anonymity. “The revised ADP is a realistic adjustment based on actual implementation capacity.”
The downsizing comes amid persistent implementation challenges, including delays in project approval, slow procurement processes, land acquisition problems and limited capacity of implementing agencies.
Despite repeated directives and high-level monitoring meetings, most ministries failed to accelerate spending even after the first quarter, when ADP implementation usually gathers momentum.
Data from the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division show that several major ministries and divisions spent less than half of their allocated funds by mid-year.
Transport, power, health and local government sectors, traditionally the largest ADP spenders, were among the weakest performers.
Foreign-funded projects were particularly affected, as disbursement delays, prolonged negotiations with development partners and compliance-related issues further slowed implementation.
Officials said a substantial share of the Tk 30,000 crore reduction would come from externally financed projects that showed little prospect of meaningful progress during the current fiscal year.
The move to shrink the ADP also reflects growing fiscal pressure, driven by revenue shortfalls, rising debt servicing costs and commitments under the IMF-supported reform programme.
With tax collection lagging behind targets and subsidy demands remaining high, the finance ministry has pushed for tighter control over development expenditure.
“The government no longer has the fiscal space to maintain inflated ADP figures,” a finance ministry official said. “The revised ADP aligns spending with realistic implementation capacity and available resources.”
“Reducing the ADP has become routine,” said a former Planning Commission member. “Instead of addressing structural bottlenecks, the system keeps adjusting numbers downward year after year.”
Despite the overall reduction, officials said the revised ADP would aim to protect a limited number of priority and fast-moving projects, particularly those nearing completion or linked to essential services such as energy supply, transport connectivity and social infrastructure.
Some reallocation of funds is also expected towards projects considered critical for economic stability, including power transmission, fuel supply and export facilitation. New projects and low-priority schemes are likely to face deeper cuts or nominal allocations.
Last year, the revised ADP was cut by a record Tk 49,000 crore, bringing its size down to Tk 2.16 lakh crore.