By Ajay Chhetri, Kathmandu, July 15: The federal government expenditure has increased well in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020/21 in comparison to the previous FY. The final statistics of the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO) for FY 2020/21 stood at Rs. 1,474.64 billion, 309 billion up from Rs. 1,091.13 of the previous FY.

The rise is attributable to the conspicuous rise in the current expenditure and capital expenditure. The FCGO statistics recorded that the current expenditure stood at Rs. 851.4 billion in the FY 2020/21 up from Rs. 784.14 billion of the previous FY. Similarly, capital expenditure stood at Rs. 227.7 billion, which remained just 28 billion rupees more than the sum of Rs. 189.08 billion of previous FY. The current expenditure got limited to 89 per cent of the target.

The capital expenditure - crucial spending for development- has significantly increased despite the pandemic-driven economic disruption. In the previous FY, the spending was 46.34 percent of its actual target. Meanwhile, in the current FY, the proportion sprang up to 60 percent of the targeted amount.

However, financial expenditure has comparatively shrunk in comparison to the expenditure of the previous FY. The financial expenditure stood at Rs. 100.9 billion which is down from previous Rs. 117.90 billion.

The data shows that the expenditure trend is not consistent through the FY. The volume of expenditure has abruptly gone up specifically in the end of last two months. The proportion of aggregate government spending was 55.96 percent of the targeted amount at the end of the first 10 months this FY. However, it rose to 80.03 percent as the FY came to a close. Similarly, the proportion of capital expenditure was 35.67 of the targeted amount until the first 10 months of the current FY. Meanwhile, the proportion suddenly soared to 60 percent during the span of 2 months.

Spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance, Mahesh Acharya, said that despite the halt in economic activities during the enforcement of Prohibitory Order, spending surpassed the amount of the previous FY. He, however, stated that the government has the potential to improve the quantity of expenditure in the next fiscal year.