The National Economic Council (NEC) on Wednesday approved Tk 2,07,550 crore revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) for the current fiscal year, downsizing the original ADP outlay of Tk 2,25,324 crore.

The approval came at a meeting of the NEC presided over by NEC Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She joined it virtually from her official residence Ganobhaban.

Other NEC members, including ministers and secretaries attended the meeting from the NEC Conference Room at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar and the Cabinet Division's Conference Room at the Bangladesh Secretariat.

"The NEC endorsed the RADP slashing the original ADP by Tk 17,774 crore," said Planning Division Secretary Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty at a press briefing after the NEC meeting.

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He said the number of projects in the RADP increased to 1,770 from 1534 in the original ADP.

The funding from foreign sources saw a cut of Tk 17,774.23 crore to stand at Tk 70,250 crore while the funding from the local sources remained almost unchanged at Tk 1,37,300 crore.

However, considering the RADP allocation of Tk 9,613.68 crore for the autonomous bodies and corporations, the overall RADP allocation for the current FYFY22 stood at Tk 2,17,163.68 crore.

In the last FY2020-21, the RADP was Tk 1,97,643 crore, said the planning secretary.

At the briefing, Planning Minister MA Mannan said the NEC meeting focused on six strong areas of the economy. These are attainment of nearly 7pc of GDP growth in the last fiscal year, good performances of the agricultural sector, keeping inflation rate under control, handling the Covid-19 including its latest Omicron variant smoothly, maintaining both the export market and labour market, and the government's latest move to rollout the universal pension scheme.

He said the prime minister appreciated the operations of e-GP being run by the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) under the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) in curbing tender manipulation.

She thanked the planning ministry and other entities concerned for attaining two per cent more in the ADP implementation rate during the July-January period of the current fiscal year (FY22) compared to the same period of the last FY21 despite the Covid-19.

In case of land acquisition, the PM directed the authorities concerned to snap photos of the proposed lands while planning to take a project so that no land owner could demand access compensation after erecting new structures prior to land acquisition.

State Minister for Planning Dr Shamsul Alam, the IMED Secretary and members of the Planning Commission were present at the briefing.