Budget implementation in Karnali at 9.68 per cent in five months

By Our Correspondent,Surkhet, Dec. 26: The Karnali Provincial Government has spent only 9.68 per cent of the budget in the first five months of the current fiscal year. Only Rs. 3.23 billion of the total budget allocation has been spent by December 16, 2023.

The provincial government has presented a budget of Rs. 33.37 billion for the current fiscal year 2023/24. Looking at the state of budget implementation, the Karnali government looks weaker than last fiscal year.

The government had spent 9.80 per cent of the budget during the first five months of the last fiscal year 2022/23. Coming to the second term of the provincial government, instead of improvement in the implementation, the performance of the current government in budget implementation has not improved.

Because of this, the performance of the provincial government is being questioned. In the current fiscal year, the budget under recurrent expenditure is Rs. 13.80 billion, while the capital budget is Rs. 19.57 billion. However, the government is poor in implementing the development budget.  

By mid-December 2023, while the government spent 16.42 per cent of the budget under the recurrent budget, only 4.94 per cent of the capital budget was implemented. The condition of the budget implementation of the ministries which are given great importance and priority has been very weak.

According to the Province Financial Comptroller Office, Karnali Province, the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Urban Development, which has an annual budget of more than Rs. 10.11 billion, including recurrent and capital budget, has been able to implement only 5.32 per cent in five months.

Out of it, the ministry has spent only 4.60 per cent under capital budget heading and 27.11 per cent under recurrent heading.  This ministry has the highest development budget of Rs. 9.83 billion for the current fiscal year.

Another ministry with a higher development budget is Water Resources and Energy Development. This ministry has spent 5.89 per cent of both the recurrent and capital budget. The Ministry, which has important development plans such as hydroelectricity and drinking water, is not able to pay much attention to budget implementation. 

This ministry has a development budget of more than Rs. 3 billion.

Similarly, the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers spent only 3.38 per cent of its budget, the Ministry of Finance 25.66 per cent, the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forestry and Environment 11.82 per cent, the Ministry of Land, Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives 9.51 per cent, the Ministry of Law 15.62 per cent and the Ministry of Social Development 16. 19 per cent in the first five months.

According to Pushkar Pulami, the Information Officer of the Province Financial Comptroller Office, Karnali Province, the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers, which has a budget of more than Rs. 1.3 billion, is not able to spend even 1 per cent of its development budget.