With public projects disrupted following the political changeover on August 5 and the interim government exercising caution in spending, the implementation rate of the annual development programme (ADP) fell to at least 14-year low in the July-October period of this fiscal year.

The government allocated Tk 278,288 crore for the ADP this fiscal year, up 9.6 percent from last fiscal year's revised budget of Tk 254,000 crore.

However, in the first four months of FY25, implementing agencies could spend only Tk 21,978 crore, according to data from the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED).

They spent Tk 31,692 crore during the same period in the last fiscal year.

This was reflected in the drop in the implementation rate, which fell from 11.54 percent to just 7.90 percent year-on-year in the four-month period.

The government could implement only 14.25 percent of the ADP in the same period in FY20.

According to the IMED officials, all projects under the ADP are on hold as contractors, who fled following the ouster of the Awami League government, are yet to return to work.

The ADP implementation rate is usually slow at the beginning of the fiscal year, said Mir Nasir Hossain, managing director of construction company Mir Akhter Hossain Ltd.

But this year is different due to the political changeover and anti-discrimination student movement, which impacted the ADP implementation, he said.

Besides, the government is identifying project which are not that important, for which the rate of implementation of the ADP is slow compared to that of previous years, he said.

However, Hossain is hopeful that the ADP implementation would gain pace in the third quarter of the fiscal year as the interim government would by then identify ways to expedite implementation of the development work.

Among the 56 ministries and divisions that received a portion of the ADP allocation, the Cabinet Division, foreign affairs ministry, law and justice division, and parliament secretariat were unable to spend a single paisa.

Another seven agencies spent less than one percent of their allocations.

Among the 15 agencies that received the largest allocations, the local government division performed the best, managing to spend 13.90 percent of its total allocation followed by the Ministry of Science and Technology at 13.63 percent.

Additionally, the Ministry of Agriculture managed 11.58 percent and the Ministry of Railways 12.90 percent.

The IMED officials said the government is currently reviewing projects on a priority basis.

They added that some projects, which were taken up on political consideration and which caused the implementation rate to slow, would be scrapped.

However, the officials opined that implementation would gather momentum after the decisions were finalised.

Meanwhile, steelmakers demanded that the government accelerate the implementation of development projects to provide relief to the industry, which has seen sales decline by 40 percent due to low public sector demand.

According to Bangladesh Steel Manufacturers Association, the government accounts for 67 percent of the country's total steel consumption.