Fund for roads yet to get going, even after eight years

The Road Maintenance Fund (RMF) could not be made functional in last eight years since its inception in 2013 due to absence of necessary rules and regulations, sources said.

They also alleged that some quarters, which were against the formation of such a fund, were not cooperating in carrying out necessary work in this regard.

The government had created the fund through enacting a law, Road Maintenance Fund Board Act, on July 14 in 2013 aiming to facilitate maintenance, repair and renovation work of more than 22,000 km roads under Roads and Highways Department (RHD).

Apart from the budgetary allocation, the RMF is supposed to mobilise fund from 20 sources like road tax, motor vehicle tax, motor fitness fees, route permit, registration and licence fees, road cutting and utility fees, and penalties.

The MoRTB had estimated that around Tk 20 billion would come to the fund every year from the proposed sources.

Preparing the necessary formalities to make the fund functional was taking longer time than expected, officials said.

They said the draft rules for the RMF was approved by its board in November, 2018 with a proposal to impose a minimum charge on using fuel and the 20 other sources.

Earlier, a six-member board of the RMF was formed with the Road Transport and Highways Division Secretary as its chairman.

Officials said a draft policy also has been finalised in a recent meeting of the board based on comments of different ministries, but would take more time to finalise it as creation of an independent fund without involvement of the Ministry of Finance is a new practice.

Sources said initially the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges had sought a code from the Ministry of Finance to deposit all the funds to be coming from its planned sources. But the MoF refused the proposal and suggested the MoRTB to prepare a guideline.

Later, a special committee was formed in 2014 which had submitted recommendations on the mode of transfer of the funds to a new code or institutional code from specified sources citing examples of different countries.

Sources said that the RMF board later decided to formulate the rules to make the law functional.

However, the MoRTB is now preparing a policy which, an official said, is almost finalised as the board approved it last month.

"The policy would be shared again with different ministries and then sent to the law ministry for its vetting," said an official involved with the policy formulation.