By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Jan. 25: Government has spent Rs. 415.75 billion or 28.19 per cent of the total budget, in the first half of the current fiscal year, Finance Ministry informed.
According to the ministry, in the first six months of the current FY 2020/21, capital expenditure stood at Rs. 50.82 billion (14.4 per cent) while recurrent expenditure amounted to Rs. 342.36 billion (36.08 per cent). Similarly, financial management stood at Rs. 22.57 billion (13.06 per cent).
The government had unveiled a budget of Rs. 1,474.65 billion for the current fiscal year. Out of it, Rs. 948.94 billion was allocated for recurrent expenditure, Rs. 352.92 billion for capital expenditure, and Rs. 172.79 billion for financial management.
The Ministry of Finance reviewed the budget in the presence of the secretaries of the concerned ministries on Sunday.
Overall, budget expenditure of the government increased by 1.27 per cent during the review period compared to same period last fiscal year.
Current expenditure has increased by 10.56 per cent while capital expenditure has gone down by 19.6 per cent and financial management by 40.08 per cent in the first six months against the performance of the previous year.
By mid-January 2021, the government has collected Rs. 380 billion in revenue, received foreign grant of Rs. 5.61 billion and foreign debt Rs. 30.04 billion.
Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel said that the ministry had facilitated both the government and private sector to expedite the development projects with the adoption of health safety measures even during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to mobilise higher amount of capital budget.
According to him, concrete steps were not taken immediately to solve the problem as the ministry was discussing and coordinating among the concerned ministries and inter-ministerial bodies to increase capital expenditure.
He urged the authorities to be responsible and accountable and assured assistance and facilitation from the Finance Ministry.
Non-budgetary demands, additional disbursement demands and indifference for financial procedures and financial accountability were the major challenges in budget mobilization.
Likewise, less attention to budget allocation and pressure on budget transfer, programme amendments, reluctance to mobilise foreign aid were also the key issues.
Similarly, delay in formulating procedures, criteria and directives, poor implementation of the Appropriation Act and budget implementation guidelines, violation of spending norms, and delay in budget allocation are other challenges in budget implementation.
In order to make the budget implementation effective, the MoF said that it would give more attention to timely budget surrender and transfer, justification-based programme amendment, in-depth preparation of new budget, revision of foreign resource programmes and speedy implementation of allocated budget.
The minister said that the norms must be implemented.
Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Dr. Pushpa Raj Kadel, said that it was necessary to improve the modality of expenditure for effective budget mobilization.
Finance Secretary Shishir Kumar Dhungana said that economic activities were increased in recent days with 54 per cent of the industries running in full capacity and 36 per cent running partially. More initiatives should be taken to increase capital expenditure, he said.
Revenue Secretary Ram Sharan Pudasaini said that the lack of budget expenditure would affect employment generation. The secretaries expressed the view that the working procedures should be prepared and implemented at the ministry-level and the ceiling of the multi-year contract should not be the same.