Six local levels of Rupandehi fail to pass budget in time

By Our Correspondent Bhairahawa, July 18: Six municipalities of Rupandehi have not yet passed the budget, which should have been submitted to the municipal assembly by Asar 10 (June 24) and passed by the end of Asar.

According to the Intergovernmental Fiscal Management Act and the Local Government Operation Act, all local governments have to submit their policies, programmes and budgets for the coming year to their assemblies by June 24.

Although there is a legal provision that the municipality should submit the appropriation bills to the assembly along with the policy, programmes and budget and pass them by the end of Asar, six of the 16 municipalities of Rupandehi have not yet passed the budget.

Lumbini Sanskritik Municipality, Mayadevi, Kanchan, Kotahimai and Gadhawa Rural Municipality along with Tilottama Municipality, which is considered as a model municipality in Nepal, have not been able to pass the budget for the fiscal year 2022/23 that begun from Sunday.

Although the budget was presented in the Municipal Assembly on June 24, people's representatives said that the budget could not be passed due to ceiling, internal disputes and lack of coordination among new people's representatives.

In Tilottama Municipality, there has been a controversy regarding the change of tax rate and tax net, while in Mayadevi, Lumbini Sanskritik and other municipalities, the budget could not be passed due to budget ceiling and internal disputes.

According to Mayadevi Rural Municipality’s Dhruba Narayan Chaudhary, the executive meeting of the municipality will be held on next Tuesday and discussion about the budget will be held on Wednesday.

He said that the rural municipality has tried to pass the budget as the resources are limited.

Information Officer of Lumbini Sanskritik Municipality Ashok Pandey said that the budget has not been passed.

In Lumbini, the budget was not passed due to disagreement on the budget ceiling.

Bipin Chhetri, the chief administrative officer of Gadhawa, did not give a clear answer about whether the budget was passed or not.

"The budget has been passed, but it has not been finalised, it is in the process of being done," he said.

People's representatives are spending time in executive meetings because they could not reach an agreement on budget allocation.

According to the Local Government Operation Act, 2074 and the Intergovernmental Fiscal Management Act, 2074, estimates of revenue and income-expenditure must be submitted within Asar 10.

It is against the law to spend or collect revenue without passing the budget from the local assembly by the end of Asar. There are 16 municipalities in Rupandehi. Ten municipalities have already passed the budget.