“We’ve been asked by the Finance Ministry to keep our new budget within the framework Tk 2,991 crore with Tk 2,255 crore for development expenditure and Tk 36 crore for revenue expenditure,” said a senior official at the Energy Ministry.
In the current fiscal, development expenditure is Tk 1,608 crore while revenue expenditure Tk 40 crore.
Though the coming budget has been directed to increase by Tk 643 crore, only a few new projects was included in the annual development programme (ADP) of the coming budget of the fiscal year 2013-14.
They informed that there were a total of 38 projects in the ADP of the current budget ending on June 30. The projects were reduced to 36 in the revised ADP of the current fiscal. But the new ADP will get 27 projects.
Of the 36, 10 will be completed in the current fiscal while the remaining 26 will continue in the coming budget. “No new, but one, is going to be added to the new ADP of the coming budget,” said another senior official preferring anonymity as he is not authorised to speak on the issue.
The new one is installation of SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system in the gas transmission network of the country. The Gas Transmission Company Limited (GTCL), a subsidiary of the state-owned Petrobangla, will implement the project at a cost of Tk 294 crore.
The major ongoing projects of the current ADP include installation of a number of gas transmission pipeline projects, drilling of wells and gas production enhancement in a number of gas fields, including Srikail, Semutang, Kapasia and Sundalpur and Sunetra.
Petrobangla has been successful in getting positive results from these projects. But its worst performing project was Sunetra field where it spent more than Tk 50 crore in drilling purpose, but found no gas.
Officials said the Energy Ministry has undertaken a move to implement a good number of development projects through newly formed Gas Development Fund (GDF) beyond the ADP.
As per an order of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC), the Energy Ministry formed the GDF by the additional income from the sale of gas at an increased rate.
While passing an order to allow Petrobangla to increase gas price in 2009, the BERC ordered the authorities concerned to create a new fund through the additional income to be made from the increased price of gas.
“This year, a Tk 2,400 crore will be spent from GDF to implement a total of 10 projects in the gas sector,” said one official.
He also said the government will have to spend a about Tk 12,000 crore on subsidy purpose, which will not be shown in the Energy Ministry’s budget head. Rather, the subsidy amount will be shown in the Finance Ministry head.