Foreign debt aid commitments fell by 98 percent
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photo: Collected
In the first two months of the current fiscal year, the government has received only 2 crore 2 lakh dollars in foreign aid commitments from development partners. That was the pledge of 114 crore 43 lakh dollars in aid during the same period of the previous fiscal year.
According to this, in July and August of the current fiscal year, compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, the pledge of foreign aid has decreased by 98.24 percent.
All this information has been revealed in the Economic Relations Division's (ERD) temporary report on foreign aid on Monday (September 30).
Along with the collapse in aid pledges, foreign aid concessions also fell by nearly 48 percent in the last two months compared to the same period in the previous fiscal, ERD said.
Apart from that, the amount of assistance that was released during this time, about 29 percent more money was spent on paying off the old debt, it was also revealed in the report.
ERD officials said that the loan agreement proposals made during the previous government are being reviewed by the current interim government. Due to this, loan agreements with development partners are not being completed.
However, after the review, the proposed loan process will begin and the officials expect the commitments to be realized as per the target.
Officials also said that after the formation of the interim government, multilateral and various bilateral development partners including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) have given initial assurances of loans and budget support for various projects in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, the interim government has initiated a review of all ongoing, proposed and under-discussion foreign-funded projects to identify priority projects and close those deemed unnecessary.
As part of this, ERD has already through a letter asked the project implementing agencies to submit a priority list with project rationale, feasibility and progress information by this month.
According to ERD sources, the list of foreign loans is already being submitted from various ministries and departments. ERD will review these lists and send them to the Planning Commission. Then the Planning Commission will start the project approval process and ERD loan process on priority basis.
According to the ERD report, no loan commitments were received in the first two months of the current financial year. However, 2 crore 1 lakh 60 thousand dollars have been pledged. During the same period of the 2023-24 financial year, grants received were 5 crore 43 lakh 50 thousand and loan commitments were 109 crore dollars. Loans and grants totaled 114 crore 43 lakh 6o thousand dollars in pledges. In other words, it has decreased by 98.2 percent during the fiscal year.
On the other hand, in the first two months of the current financial year, 45 crore 82 lakh 40 thousand dollars have been deducted. Out of this, 38 crore 69 lakh 100,000 dollars in loans and 7 crore 13 lakh 300,00 dollars in grants were received. 73 crore 90 lakh 70 thousand dollars were received during the same period of the last financial year. Out of this, the amount of loan was 72 crore 72 lakh 40 thousand dollars and grant was 1 crore 18 lakh 30 thousand dollars.
In this regard, in the first two months of the current financial year, the interest and principal repayment of the loan has been 58 crore 92 lakh 20 thousand dollars. Out of this, the interest payment is 17 crore 36 lakh dollars and the principal payment is 41 crore 56 lakh 20 thousand dollars. The interest and principal repayments in the financial year 2023-24 was 40 crore 50 lakh dollars. Of this, the interest was 14 crore 63 lakh 90 thousand dollars and the original amount was 25 crore 41 lakh 10 thousand dollars.
