The government has increased the size of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the next fiscal year by more than 29 percent although that of the current fiscal remains largely unused.

The National Economic Council (NEC) yesterday approved Tk 97,000 crore ADP for FY 2015-16, with an additional Tk 3,997 crore allocation for the autonomous state-owned enterprises, which will implement the projects through their own financing.

This means, the overall development expenditure in the next fiscal year would stand at Tk 1,00,997 crore, said Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal after the NEC meeting at his ministry yesterday.

The initial size of the ADP in the current fiscal was Tk 80,315 crore but it was later slashed to Tk 75,000 crore. However, only 56 percent of the revised ADP has been spent in the first 10 months of the current FY.

For the next fiscal, the planning ministry initially proposed Tk 92,500 crore ADP but considering the demand of other ministries, Prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who chaired the meeting, increased the allocation by Tk 4,500, said Kamal.

Terming this a historic allocation, the minister said the ADP size has now exceeded the Tk 1,00,000 crore mark whereas it was only Tk 23,300 crore when the Sheikh Hasina-led government came to power six years back.

Asked if such an ambitious ADP could be realised at all, Kamal said: "I hope it will be implemented."

Every year, a large ADP is taken up and then slashed in the revised budget. However, at the end of the year, the government always fail to fully implement it.

For example, in FY 2013-14, the original ADP size was Tk 65,872 crore but it was cut down to Tk 60,000 crore in the revised budget.

At the end of the year, Tk 56,913 crore could be spent, according to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED).

The Finance Division data shows the expenditure was even less -- Tk 51,999 crore.

This time, the planning minister said, "special measures" will be taken from the very first day of the fiscal year for full implementation of the ADP.

There are many "missing areas" in realising the ADP, he said.

For example, Kamal said, there many projects, only 1-2 percent of which are left to be completed. But the project directors intentionally delay the completion by adding more components to the projects, for their own benefits.

"These malpractices will be stopped from next fiscal year," he asserted.

Sixty-four percent of the upcoming ADP will be implemented through own financing, the planning ministry proposed.

The transport sector will get the highest allocation -- more than 20 percent of the ADP -- with Tk 7,400 crore set aside for the Padma Bridge project alone.

In the current FY, Tk 8,100 crore was allocated to the project but Tk 2,000 crore of this is likely to remain unutilised, a planning ministry official said.

A total of 998 projects have been approved in the new ADP, with 857 unapproved ones kept under consideration.

The ADP keeps aside another 368 projects, the implementations of which are subject to availability of foreign fund.

Moreover, 40 projects have been mentioned in the ADP for implementation under Public-Private Partnership.