The government has exempted the education, health and agriculture ministries from its decision to halt new building work as part of this financial year's spending squeeze.

The finance ministry issued a revised circular on Tuesday, relaxing two conditions of the earlier one.

Apart from structures belonging to the education, health and agriculture ministries, construction of new residential, non-residential and other buildings will remain suspended, the circular says.

The original circular was issued on 8 July to cut government spending.

Under the second relaxation, where a building is at least 70 per cent complete, the remaining work may be financed with the approval of the finance division.

The exemption keeps district and upazila agriculture buildings, seed laboratories, cold stores and research facilities under construction, which matters for keeping field-level services running.

Source: Prothom Alo