Of the utilised budget for the Annual Development Programme (ADP), 42 percent was from its local component and 30 percent from project aid, sources in the finance ministry said.

The pace of ADP slowed down especially as the government could not start implementation of two large programmes under education and health sectors.

The allotment for ADP in the current fiscal is Tk 20,300 crore. Its local part is Tk 11,816 crore, of which Tk 4,962 crore has been utilised so far. And of the total Tk 8,484-crore project aid, only Tk 2,545 crore has been used.

A planning ministry official said the pace of utilising the local component of the development budget was by and large satisfactory and would gain momentum when implementation of development programmes in the communications sector started.

Communications sector accounts for a big chunk of the ADP, the official added.

Of the development budget's local component, 52 percent has so far been disbursed in favour of the ADP, a finance ministry official said.

The slow pace of ADP implementation, combined with a higher revenue income and increased sales of savings certificates, has helped reduce the government's borrowing from the country's banking sector.

In the first seven months of the current fiscal, the revenue income increased by about 16 percent to Tk 13,972 crore, compared to the corresponding period in the previous year, a National Board of Revenue (NBR) official said.

Despite lowering of interest rates by 1.5 percent, the net sales of savings certificates in the first six months of the current fiscal registered a 35-percent rise to Tk 2,695 crore from Tk 1,997 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

In the same six months, the government's net borrowing from the banking system came down by 3.3 percent or Tk 634 crore. The government in the beginning had projected borrowing Tk 2,603 crore from the banking sector this fiscal.