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Called into question, projected spending on 2021 population census halved

Published : Tuesday, 29 October, 2019 at 12:00 AM  Count : 812

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics or BBS has slashed the cost of the population census 2021 by almost half after the planning minister criticised the previously proposed Tk 35 billion expenditure for the project.
The national statistical agency, in its latest proposal on the 'Population and Housing Census 2021', scaled down the cost of the project to Tk 17.62 billion.
The plan will now be scrutinised by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council or ECNEC on Tuesday.
Bangladesh is slated to hold a fresh population census in 2021, 10 years after the last survey in 2011 was conducted at a cost of Tk 2.37 billion.
But the cost of the project under the BBS' proposal submitted in July was set to mark a 15 percent increase from the previous count.
The Planning Commission's Project Evaluation Committee or PEC baulked at the estimated expenditure for the project and rebuffed the proposal after an initial review.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
On the estimated cost, Planning Minister MA Mannan said a 10-15 percent rise in costs in the space of 10 years was in no way acceptable.
A revised proposal, which put the estimated cost down at Tk 22.25 billion, was also rejected by the Planning Commission.
The BBS eventually won the approval of the PEC after the project expenditure was revised down to Tk 17.62 billion.  
The proposal for the Population and Housing Census 2021 will be placed before the ECNEC for final approval on Tuesday, said Planning Secretary Md Nurul Amin.
On the cost reductions in the project, Zahidul Hoque Sarker, the director of BBS' census wing, said: "We have cut costs in several areas of the project in two phases, especially the allowances for supervisors and counters, in order to reduce the overall expenditure."
The allowance for a supervisor and counter has been whittled down to Tk 8,000 each from Tk 11,000, he said.
But the expenditure can still be increased after the project is greenlit, according to Zahidul.     -bdnews24.com






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