Planning commission has sent back a proposal of the Election Commission to buy some two lakh electronic voting machines worth Tk 8,711.44 crore as part of its scrutiny.

At a briefing after the executive committee of the National Economic Council meeting, planning secretary Md Mamun-Al-Rashid on Tuesday said that they had made a number of observations of the EC proposal and sent it back to the Election Commission for clarification.

He, however, did not disclose the observations made regarding the much-talked-about               EVM project.

The issue of EVM was raised when a question was made to know whether any discussion about the much-talked-about project was held during the meeting.

Planning minister MA Mannan replied in the negative.

Mamun-Al-Rashid said that the EC submitted the proposal to the planning commission in October.

He expected that the Election Commission would submit the proposal with clarifications.  

The import of EVMs will cost about Tk 6,660 crore, planning commission officials said, referring to the EC project proposals.

The planning commission has sought clarification regarding the price of machine quoted Tk 3.33 lakh each.

Its officials observed that the price quoted for each machine was high.        

The planning commission has also sought clarification from the Election Commission on the procurement of about 530 vehicles under the project and their maintenance costs over Tk 310 crore.

It also sought clarification on the EC proposal to buy closed circuit cameras and security-related devices at Tk 132 crore.

Economists have already cautioned the government to be careful about selection of development projects against the backdrop of the current economic crisis.

They said that a major portion of the EVM purchase project involved foreign currency.

The country’s foreign reserve has fallen below $35 on November 7, 2022 from $48 billion in August 2021 amid shortage of greenbacks.

The government has already sought $4.5 billion loans from International Monetary Fund to overcome the current economic crisis that might aggravate in the coming months due to shortage of dollar amid fall in export income and remittance.