Dhaka, March 7 -- The planning commission has approved time extension of 116 projects without increasing costs in the first seven months of the current fiscal year.

Around 50 others of such proposals are in wait for recommendation by the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), said officials concerned of the commission and the IMED.

Earlier, planning ministry received proposals for time extension for 142 schemes.

In February, multiple ministries and divisions submitted over 50 new proposals to the Planning Commission and the IMED in addition to the six pending cases, according to Commission officials.

Experts and economists said the provision of "extending period without an increase in cost" is often abused as a tact...